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They say an eco-friendly house can't be built in 150 days for $150,000, and I say it can.
I'm Allen Smith, join me as I push the limits with time, budget and creativity with the
Garden Home Challenge, exclusively on eHow Home. Got a phone call from our local Lumber
Liquidators about the butcher block that I had ordered. And I didn't realize that we
had one that was actually a brick and mortar -- I thought we were just ordering everything
online and it was just gonna show up, so it's fun to come into their showroom. And what
I learned is that not everything you find online is actually in the showroom. So I'm
eager to see the butcher block, because having been in here before, all I saw was, really,
well, a little bit of countertop, but most of what they have here is all about flooring.
So while I'm in town, I just thought, hey, I'll come by and take a look at it since it's
in, make sure everything's cool, and then they're gonna deliver it out to the farm.
Let's go check it out. Hey, Chase. Hey, how you doing? I'm doing alright. It's feeling
like summer out there. Yeah, right. Good to see you. You too, you too. Well, I understand
we got a little kitchen counter that's come in. Right, the maple countertop. This is the
maple butcher block countertop -- this is just a clear coat polyurethane that's on it.
This one's actually 10-years-old. Yeah, so this is the one that you were telling me about?
Uh huh. That's the way they look. This has polyurethane on it? Right. And this is 10-years-old?
10-years-old -- never refinished. Wow. And it's seen a lot of wear. Yes, and you just
screen this off and it'll look brand new. Yeah. Put another sealing coat on it. Well,
you know, when I went online, I noticed that you had Cherry and you had Maple. Uh huh.
And we went with the Maple because I like the lighter color, but the Cherry sure looked
good. Uh huh. Yeah. Is there a preference you find customers like one over the other,
or kind of six of one, half a dozen of the other? This one is easier to stain. Ah. All
these you can stain. Ooh, I didn't even think about staining it. Anything you stain a cherry
is still gonna be red. Yeah, it's gonna be really dark. This one you can stain any color.
Yeah, sure. So we actually got it in? I can take a look at it? Uh huh. Just come on back
here. Okay, thanks. Oh, so this is it here? Uh huh. This is the finished side. Yeah. The
opposite side is gonna be the unfinished. Wow, it's heavy. Yeah. Yeah, gosh, it's really
solid. So, you can notice some the gaps and knots in it -- that's what makes it the unfinished
side. Ah, I gotcha, gotcha. The indicator there. Uh huh. Right, and it's a little rougher
as well, I can tell. Right. Well, you know, it's interesting: I'm really thinking now
about that stain idea, you know? Maybe darkening this up just a little bit. It looks really
good. Uh huh. Excellent. So, when do you guys think you might be able to get it out to the
house? Depending on your availability, we can probably get out there tomorrow. That'd
be fabulous. Great. Well, I know they're looking forward to seeing that because they have the
cabinets all ready. Excellent. Alright. Thank you so much. Uh huh. Yeah, I think this really
looks good. It's a lot heavier than I thought. Of course, it's solid Maple. And, you know,
Chase gave me a good idea about maybe tinting this a little bit -- it's a little lighter
than I wanted, but the Cherry was darker. So this could be good with just a little tint
of some sort of stain on it, and then we're gonna have to think about what finish. They
use the polyurethane here, but we may wanna do something more natural like tung oil. So,
we'll have to check that out. But, anyway, this in place is gonna make the kitchen look
awesome and that much more complete. When I'm choosing a countertop, it depends on the
application. If you're using it as an actual butcher block, you'll wanna put some type
of oil on it to preserve the wood if you're actually gonna be cutting into. If you're
just using it for looks, it'll be a polyurethane or a stain on top of it. They can virtually
last a lifetime because they're a solid inch thick -- you could sand it down as many times
as you wanted to and refinish it every time.