Kitchen & Master Bath, Cary, N.C.
Musico had good memories of Granite and Marble by Malave, the Greensboro, N.C.-based company that upgraded her kitchen countertops to granite when she and husband John Harvilla moved in 15 years ago.
When the couple decided it was time to upgrade the entire kitchen, there was no question where they’d go for their countertops. The end result involved a bit more work: a beautiful bookmatched, granite-slab master bath.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
Musico’s story isn’t all that unusual. When she and Harvilla first moved into their home the only thing they had opted to upgrade at the time was to replace the Formica® countertops in the kitchen with granite.
Fifteen years later, they were ready for something different.
“It had contractor-grade cabinets and flooring, and was very sterile because everything was pretty much white: white cabinets and white tile floors,” she says. “We just reached the point where we decided it was time for a complete overhaul, and our first thought was we were going to do the kitchen.”
Musico and Harvilla were even quite certain about what they wanted: an oak floor with cherry cabinets. Musico even knew she wanted them with a honey sable finish, except for the island, which she wanted to be painted black and then distressed.
The only question in their minds was what granite would best fit with their vision for the kitchen. However, they were confident on choosing Malave as the countertop fabricator. Musico says when they moved in originally, “They had done a great job.”
For his part, Len Malave, president of Granite and Marble by Malave, says the company has been working more with individual homeowners as the market for larger jobs has softened, and has added a design team in-house.
“About 80 percent of our business is repeat customers and customer referrals,” he says.
Both during their initial phone conversation and during a subsequent visit to the home, Malave says he brought up the option of doing some work in the couple’s bathrooms.
“She loved the ideas, and then she came down and went through our gallery,” he says.
Musico agrees that the visit to Malave’s showroom really influenced her thinking.
“When we got there, there were two things I’d never seen before,” she says. “One was the custom-made granite sinks, especially the farmers version. The other was a shower done with slab walls and the way they did the book-matching and the shelving.”
“Although we’d only intended to do the kitchen at the time, it made sense to go ahead and have them do the kitchen and the master bathroom at the same time.”
Selecting the material was probably the most difficult of the job for Musico and Harvilla, Malave says.
“We kind of get a feel for what the customer likes,” Malave says. “In this case, we looked at the cabinets and the fixtures. She looked at a couple stones she really liked, and settled on the stones we ended up fabricating.”
POTENTIAL FOR CATASTROPHE
The two stones – both Brazilian granites processed in Italy – presented their own challenges, although for many shops the clients’ decision to act as their own contractor on the job may have given pause.
Malave says it wasn’t a problem in this case, and he’s finding more individuals are doing their own contracting in this economy.
“They had a cabinet company and a plumber they’d worked with in the past,” Malave says. “We got the information and worked with them. It was mainly a matter of coordinating with the cabinetmaker on when he’d be installing the cabinets, and the plumber on when he’d be done. We also worked closely with the glass company on the shower. It was very smooth.”
Although both were done simultaneously, Musico agrees with Malave’s assessment. She says it helped that the home has a kitchenette in the basement and a couple other baths; the total job took about seven weeks.
She notes that because of the flow of work, the plumber and the cabinetmaker needed to be in the kitchen and bathroom at different times in the process.
“Especially with the bathroom, because Malave did the tear-out and the shower bed-liner and the entire install except the cabinets and the shower door, it was pretty easy,” says Musico.
For Malave, the real challenges came with the fabrication and installation of the granite.
The kitchen granite is a 3cm Juperana White-and-Gold that includes two custom-made sinks: a 30” X 18” farmers sink, and a 16” X 16” undermounted bar sink.
“They’re bookmatched, and the rest the countertops are approximately 100 ft² with a 1/2” beveled edge,” Malave says. He adds that the entire job was cut on the shop’s Omag S.p.A. CNC router.
The bathroom is approximately 300 ft² of Juperana Broadway, also in a 3cm and the shower walls and floor are book-matched.
“The floor has only two seams, and when you bookmatch the slabs, if anything goes wrong with the installation you can lose the whole job,” Malave says. “That’s why you don’t see jobs of this type very often.”
Further complicating the situation, he notes the distance from the driveway to the bath is approximately 200’, and stairs were involved.
“Normally, we would do a 2cm stone on the floors and walls, but this was the stone she wanted,” Malave says. “The wall pieces are 54” X 90”, and the bookmatched floor is done in three 108” X 54” pieces. On this particular installation we sent out four guys on the day we brought the big pieces in.”
The install took four visits, he adds.
Everything went in smoothly, and Musico says she’s thrilled with the results, particularly having the granite in the master bath.
“Malave, too, is pretty pleased with the end result. However, he says the couple was a pleasure to work with, and he appreciates customers who appreciate quality stone.
“I had seen these materials in Brazil, and when they cut the blocks in Italy, I went to see the blocks,” he says. “They’re unique, beautiful materials and we’ve sold a lot of jobs out of them.”
As for Musico and Harvilla, they’re already discussing plans to redo the fireplace surround in the living room, and after that, installing a second full kitchen in the basement is on the radar.
“When, we do that, we’ll probably put granite in there, too,” Musico concludes.
Clients: Kelly Musico and John Harvilla, Cary, N.C.
Stone Supplier/Fabricator/Installer: Granite and Marble by Malave, Greensboro, N.C.
This article appeared in the December 2009 print edition of Stone Business. ©2009 Western Business Media Inc.