As part of our “divide and conquer” House strategy, I took a little tour of North Carolina today. Granted my drive was nothing compared to Michael’s cabinet quest last Sunday. But hey, a girl can only do so much in the middle of a workday. After trading a few more emails, I was FINALLY able to get the countertop man on the phone. He sounded SO much nicer than his wife and far less scary, so I took the chance and drove out to Middlesex at lunch. I almost inquired if she would be there or not, but I decided to let that drop.

On the way out to the country, (seriously, once you are outside the eastern city limits of Raleigh…there is nothing), I passed few cars, fewer homes, and signs depicting towns. Not much else. Of yes, let’s not forget the cops of Zebulon. As near as I can tell, there were more police than residents. There was one very creepy thing though. Know that I am coming to some terms with the abundance of road kill here. It is simply out of necessity, as this state is ranked 8th in likelihood that you will hit a deer with your car. (Wisconsin is 7th by the way, and California is 49th I believe.) OK, but that is not the icky part. I saw a deer in the median that had obviously been hit, and it didn’t have a head. No head at all. Someone had taken it. YUCK. I told a co-worker who lives out there and she was laughing her ass off. “Yep, you were out with the rednecks”, was the best explanation she had.

Back to the counters. So I made it to Middlesex and was a given a brief history of the Corian debacle. Apparently this man’s wife wanted granite earlier this year and he talked her into Corian. He said he knew that was a bad idea from the start, but he was holding his ground on that one. The kitchen was remodeled, the $5000 of Corian installed, and three months later his wife had it replaced by the granite she wanted in the first place. Yep, THREE MONTHS. He very kindly showed me the new kitchen and while the granite is pretty, I actually preferred the Corian pattern. I also got a glimpse of the rest of the house and I will tell you now that Christmas had vomited everywhere. “The wife is a little crazy about Christmas”. I had been right to be scared.

We’ll be back in Middlesex on Saturday to pick up our counters! Being on a budget might not be so bad. You find yourself being more creative and you end up being “green” in the process. I always did like recycling.