Taken for granite

     A few years back, as the economic collapse raged into full swing, one of my hair clients informed me that the bank she worked for had handled the bankruptcy and asset auction of a granite countertop  company and that there was a lot of granite left that would eventually be thrown into dumpsters.  I went into overdrive!  I started making trips to the vacant building, loading as much granite as I could move and my little old Ford Ranger could carry and begging male friends for some muscle to help me move larger pieces.

     Within a few weeks, I had enough granite stacked all over my yard to start my own remnant business.  I still have no idea what I'm going to do with most of it but I'm open to ideas.  

      I initially tried using smaller broken pieces as stepping stones but it was very slippery when wet and one of my stepsons slipped on it while running and got a nasty cut on his ankle.  I moved those pieces to areas under shrubs where I didn't want the chickens to scratch.

     I tried looking at some DIY info for cutting granite at home but didn't get very far because it requires a wet saw which I don't currently have money for, and lots of muscle at my beck and call which, much to my chagrin, I don't have (Mike has a job and a life of his own. Dang!).  That limits my current granite creativity to simply setting pieces of granite on top of things.

     Right in the midst of my initial granite frenzy I spied at the side of the road an old metal stand for a pedal operated Singer sewing machine.  Seriously?!  Mine!

     Top that bitch with granite and I have a very cool plant stand which you can barely see in the photo coz my plants love it so much!

     I took a couple of the smaller remnants and used them as centerpieces on my dining room table and the dresser in my guest room.

     I stuck thick felt pads on the bottom side of the remnants so they don't scratch the furniture but the piece on the dining room table is very heavy and tricky to move without gouging the wood.  It works great as a trivet.

     The piece on my thrift store guest room dresser is mostly for looks but I try to get the stepsons to park their GatorAde and Big Gulp cups there instead of on the wood (which obviously needs to be refinished anyway).

     My favorite granite/furniture combo is my bedroom dresser. 

     This was originally a banged up, dark wood buffet from a thrift store that I used as a coffee station when I had my own salon.  I bought some clearanced gray paint from Lowe's and painted it, changed out the hardware (that ended up being the most expensive part of the project), and borrowed a friend's muscles to help me set a large granite slab on top of it.  I love it!  

     I still have 2 long narrow slabs that I carefully brought home (would've been 3 but granite is fragile and the narrow pieces can shatter easily) and will eventually mount on my patio fence as orchid shelves.  I also have 3 pieces that are plenty big enough to use for my bathroom counter and a real biggun' that I plan to trim and then set on top of an iron table frame I pulled out of a trash pile.  The only thing holding my back now is learning how to cut the stuff.