I’m Goin’ Home, I’m Smokin’ My Last Cigarette

My role within the industry has changed as well – and while I’m still working with granite and quartz on a daily basis, I’ve moved away from the actual task of templating and installing countertops.

Nottestad In 1986, as a sophomore in high school, I took a class called Central and South American Studies. The teacher numbed us with slide shows of his travels in those regions from the 1960s; it was an outdated joke, and I think he knew it. We all did.

The teacher’s experience wasn’t current, and therefore lacked the cutting-edge authenticity that would’ve been valuable to us if we suddenly found ourselves on a plane to Buenos Aires. I doubt he’d even sampled old vine Malbec or heard of the Shining Path.

I don’t want to be that guy. Because this column has always been about my experience with issues current to the field of templating and installing, I’ve decided – for now – to hang up my typewriter.

Even now, in a period of contraction for our industry, advances in template/install techniques and tooling are moving forward, and new countertop materials are being introduced.  While I remain up-to-date with the latest and greatest, I don’t feel I can be an authentic voice when I’m not templating and installing on a day-to-day basis.

For this, my last column, I’d like to take a little time to reflect and thank those who have helped me along the way. If you’ve learned anything from my columns, they’ve helped you too.

The granite countertop trade I entered in 1996 was, in some ways, simply a smaller version of the large industry it would become by 2008, and the slighter smaller industry of 2011. While bigger doesn’t always mean better, the investment dollars that a larger industry attracted helped to finance the innovations that improved our product.

For one thing, the material we work with improved dramatically. Slabs of granite are more-consistently polished, sized, and gauged; color and finish selection grew by leaps and bounds; and distribution channels opened up for both the single-slab and container-load buyers.

I’m not so confident this trend will continue. We’ve seen countries close their borders to the exportation of blocks in order to raise the price of slabs. We’ve also witnessed domestic distributors wreak havoc with overseas slab producers by not paying their bills.