Central Oregon Counters

I found this business on CraigsList. They advertised excellent prices on Granite counter tops (I knew the prices were teasers but I didn't have much to spend). We went to their location and found one of the $100/slab styles of granite that we liked. The really pretty styles of granite were a lot more expensive but this is to be expected. I have never installed granite before and they were very helpful showing me the tools, supplies and tricks I would need. As we were deciding on the finals we were talked into paying them install the granite. They came out and made measurements. I supplied them with an exact cut to fit hard board template that I was going to use for installing the granite myself. The lady owner came out and installed half of the kitchen as agreed. She did an awful job! I can't express what an amateur job she did! I wish I could post pictures here. The Granite didn't fit. There are gaps up to 1/4" where the granite mates with a full height cabinet. She and her helper punched holes in big portions of the drywall around the back of the counter top to force the granite into place. The seams are awful! She ground one seam down over 1/8" creating a valley where two pieces of granite meet. The one piece of bull nose that they applied (as opposed the the rest of the bull nose which was factory applied by their suppliers) looks like she ground it freehand. I am pretty sure she DID grind it freehand even though I saw their bull nose grinder in their shop. It looks like she just didn't bother to use it. She used no coloring in the epoxy so the joint lines easily stand out from across the room. It is completely obvious that they completely discarded the template I made. Bottom line... the install of the first half of the kitchen looks so bad that I knew I could easily do a better job myself! So I did! With my father's help we installed the large half of the kitchen counter tops by ourselves. With no experience what-so-ever with granite (other than a granite tile floor)... a lot of research on the internet and some You-tube videos we finished the install ourselves. The difference in the two halves of the kitchen is night and day. We took our time, leveled everything perfectly, probably made 4 times the number of cuts she did to fit everything perfectly and used an epoxy coloring kit and epoxy from ebay. By simply taking our time and doing things right we got excellent results. I have had a couple people ask me how I got a single piece of 6 foot by 18 foot slab of granite... until I point my seam out to them. It is beyond my why the "professionals" couldn't come close to my results other than she really takes ZERO pride in her work! Maybe her husband might produce excellent results... but I would not recommend to anyone letting the lady install their granite. Her work is far inferior to the work of a complete amateur!