Countertop

With the 1/2 week left after our return before I went back to work, Hege demanded I (start &) finish our kitchen countertop, which we've lived without for almost 2 years. I built the form in the basement out of melamine and worked up a false sense of confidence as it seemed to come together fairly easily

This is a detail of the faucet knockout and re-mesh around the undermounted sink opening.

This is post-pour. I started to mix the concrete at 6:30pm, when there was still sun, and quickly lost all the false confidence I'd built up. I had a lot of trouble hand-mixing the concrete (three 70lb pre-mix bags) and getting the color consistent as it rapidly got pitch black. I wound up frantically adding more water than seemed necessary in order that I could physically manage to turn the cement and get a workable mix. I have no idea how the stuff will set and what I'll find when Hege & I break open the molds this weekend (5 days curing). I anticipate a lot of pitting, cracking, and voids that I'll have to carefully fill with some kind of slurry or epoxy. This pic is with Hennie, who came down to bring me a beer and ask me hundreds of ecstatic questions without pausing. She'd been looking thru my 'how-to' concrete manual (lots of pictures)for the last week, and was recognizing every step as I finished off the pours.

After about 5 days of curing.