Counter Intelligence

So, The original quote for silestone was $5513. After some negotiation, I got the quote down to $4222. That's a huge discount, but still nowhere near my budget number. Adrienne and I went to their shop to see if there was a cheaper grade of Silestone that we could live with. I told Paul that we were still $400 over a number that I could live with. We hemmed and hawed trying to choose a cheaper stone, but we weren't really happy with the other choices. Paul came back and said he didn't have the wiggle room to drop the extra $400...

Then he asked us about granite. Frankly we hadn't even thought about granite. We were told Silestone was cheaper than granite and granite had to be sealed every two years and that was enough to knock it out of contention. Their stone has a coating with a 15 year warranty. No sealing necessary. Since we had chosen the high end Silestone (and knew what their price was for that) Paul worked up a quote for the high end granite to show us the price difference. $3600. BAM! Now we're walking around in the same time zone as my budget. Adrienne and I strolled around the granite showroom and picked out a piece we liked. It turned out to be mid-range price wise. So, granite countertops, sink, faucet, plus tax, fully installed. $3061.
BOO-YAH. Budget saved, thank you Counter Intelligence.

They will be installed next Thursday.

P.S. We brought a piece of the toe-kick and a piece of our backsplash tile and we would hold them up to the granite pieces. After we made the deal, I handed them over to Roland to watch. Tessa got her hands on them and held them up to a piece of granite and then she would say "nope" and move to the next piece.

It's hard to see here, but she's barefoot. For some reason when she walks into the Counter Intelligence showroom she kicks her shoes off.