85% beer bottles

On Friday Nigel and I took a trip to Point Richmond to chose our new kitchen countertop. You might ask why we went 1.5 hours away just to get a counter - but I have to say it was more fun than I expected chosing a counter to be.

We went to a factory sale at Vetrazzo which is located in the old Ford plant. This factory was built in 1931 for the Ford model A production line. It's a quarter of a mile long, and with north-facing skylights is naturally lit for most of the time. The old building was rescued and restored and is now the home of several 'green' companies.

Vertrazzo make counters from recycled glass. 85% of the content is post-consumer waste with a cement binder. The colour range depends on the particular glass content. We chose a colour called 'Alehouse Amber' which is made from recycled beer bottles - apparently up to 1000 bottles in each slab. Here we are in front of our future kitchen counter:

Close up you can see that this particular slab (which was an experimental variation of alehouse amber - hence it's inclusion in the sale) also has green, blue, and some red glass.

Check back some time in December* to see the finished counter in our kitchen.

* I hope...