-It's fine.
I'll just need to notch a little out of the sill,
but I think I was going to have to do that anyways.
I'm Bea, a designer and a DIYer
with a passion for home improvement.
-Whoa! -I just got my first house,
and it needs a lot of work.
-A lot of vandalism, rodents,
stripper pole here, frat stage here.
-So it's time to put my skills to the test.
I love learning from the pros,
but sometimes I'm going to try things my way.
Join me for the adventure. -Hey.
I'm Bea, and on this episode, I'm building my dream kitchen.
So the kitchen is in the same place as the old kitchen,
but I just needed to change a few things up.
The floor plan, the layout wasn't working,
not to mention the cabinets were not in great shape.
Mice, rodents had been in and out of this thing,
so it needed just a total renovation.
I have all of my IKEA lower cabinets in,
and the next step is building out my countertops.
For countertops, you know, there's marble.
There's all sorts of stones.
I'm going to go a DIY route and do concrete countertops.
In order to learn how to make them,
I need to go meet up with a professional whose name is Mark.
These are the bottoms of the molds,
which were made from templates, like, a dry fitting these
to just make sure that the measurements are...
-I'm headed over to Mark's studio
to start with step one: making the concrete molds.
-Mark? Hello?
-Hi. How are you?
-Good. How are you doing?
-Okay.
The drill press is all set up. -Great.
-Mark put me straight to work at the drill press.
This machine helps predrill holes
so that the pieces of the molds can be screwed together.
-Last one.
You've got it down to such a science,
and I just think about the way that I work,
and it's just so all over the place.
-I had seven guys working for me,
and you kind of had to figure out how to do it
so it was completely mindless and...
-Idiot-proof. Okay.
-Once we get these all made, we're going to --
We have to seal the edges, and that seal actually
makes the radius on the corners of the concrete.
-Oh, okay.
Oh, so it's not like a sharp edge.
-Right. -Got it.
-So after the caulking... -Yeah.
-...the next thing we would have to do
is to make reinforcement for the concrete itself,
so we -- I had you get some rebar.
-What's the purpose of the rebar?
-So you see all these little ridges on it?
-Mm-hmm.
-Concrete really grabs to this and binds to it,
and it will keep it from cracking.
So we have to cut the rebar.
♪♪
-Once we cut the rebar, we weld it together,
and it becomes a sturdy skeleton for each countertop section.
-Oh, my gosh. Oh, gosh!
Okay. Whoa.
I did -- I -- -Great.
-Okay. -That's great.
♪♪
Next... -Yeah.
-Now we got to put the wire lath on there.
-Wire lath, and it's like a wire net,
wire netting, very sharp and wobbly.
What is that? -What is that?
That's the thing that you cut this nasty stuff with.
-Oh, whoa. -All right.
So this fits reasonably well. -Yep.
-So long as it's got some distance from the edge,
it won't go anywhere once it's in there.
-We're back for more of the concrete countertops.
Mark, it's pouring day, right?
-Correct. Today is the big day.
-The big day, the final step. -The big day.
-So walk me through what we have to do today.
-Okay, so we had you coming.
You helped me measure out all these things into buckets.
-And we've got mini marble chips, Portland cement and sand.
-Correct.
So first, we've got to mix all of the ingredients dry.
-Mm-hmm.
-Throw the bag of pigment in there.
-Pure black pigment. -It's carbon black.
Yep. -Because carbon black --
because I'm going for, like, a dark gray.
-All right. -We need helpers?
-We're good to go.
Yes, my helper.
-This is Jeff, my oldest friend.
-We're going to start the mixer first and get this going.
-Okay. Okay.
-I'm going to let that mix around.
-Okay.
Ooh, yeah. Yeah.
-Some water with some water reducer in it
so we don't have to use as much water.
-Got it.
So, Mark, why do we have to work so fast?
Oh, gosh. -It's okay.
-First spill of the day. -You're not --
You won't be docked for spills.
As of right now, it's at a really good point
where it flows nicely, and in 1/2 hour,
it may not do that, so you want to take advantage of it.
I'm going to turn on their vibrators.
-Those orange things? -Yeah.
-It's about to get noisy.
-They're motors with an eccentric weight on them.
When you turn them on, the whole table shakes,
and it's really loud and annoying.
-And the shaking is to settle.
-Basically to get all of the air bubbles out
that will be on the surface.
♪♪
-So all of the molds are now poured.
Mark is going to finish troweling the tops
where they're nice and clean and flat and smooth,
and then we will wrap them all in plastic, seal them
so that they can dry for 10 to 14 days.
-Slowly. -Slowly dry.
-All that time putting all these screws in.
Now we got to take all these screws out.
-Mm-hmm.
-Wow, I love how they look, and they're not even finished.
-It's got, like, a little shimmer.
Faucet hole there.
So that's kind of where we placed the blobs of concrete.
-Before I can bring these countertops home,
I need to apply a concrete sealant
to protect them from liquids and scratching in the kitchen.
The countertops are in, and now I'm installing
the backsplashes per Mark's instructions.
A little glue on the back,
and they go right against the wall.
Now I just have to clean up, and this kitchen is ready.
-The kitchen is done.
Let me show you everything that's happening in here.
First of all, it's all about the countertops.
Check these out.
I am so unbelievably happy with how they look.
The color, the texture of the concrete,
the kind of wabi-sabi look of these countertops,
the very kind of imperfect, handmade, organic,
textured look completes this whole room.
With very clean lines and very kind of clean colors,
I think these countertops just pop in the best possible way.
So my parents were one of Mark's first clients
for these concrete countertops.
It was like his prototype
ended up going into the kitchen I grew up in,
and when I thought about my dream kitchen,
it was a no-brainer.
I knew Mark could make them like no other.
It was so amazing to be able to go to him and work with him
to create these for my home.
His craftsmanship is unparalleled,
and you can see in the way it turned out.
All the cabinets are in.
Those were box cabinets that I was able to build and install.
Hardware, which I love, just, like,
that matte black really pops on these cabinets.
My refinished parquet floor, those are original to the house.
So this is parquet from the '60s.
Parquet was very trendy around that time,
and I uncovered that parquet under layers of vinyl,
plywood, carpet and sanded them down,
brought them back to life with a silver-gray stain,
and I just think they came out so good.
I actually love how you can see the subtlety in different wood.
Liam built these floating shelves from beams
that I used in the dining nook,
so I just love how this is a moment
that I'm able to draw part of this other room into this room.
It just makes it feel a little more cohesive.
I have this little bar with S hooks
where I can dry herbs, hang utensils.
For me as an organizer, I just love being able to,
like, think ahead
and plan this kitchen around its functionality.
Hidden dishwasher, love that.
It was important to me to have seamless cabinets
underneath to not take away from these amazing countertops.
Working with Mark was really rewarding
because not only did I get to see his craftsmanship
and years of experience at work, but it kind of trickled down,
and I get to have something in my home
that I had a hand in making
and that hopefully lives on beyond me in this home.
They're pretty sturdy.
They're going to last a while.
One little surprise feature when these got installed,
this little thing right here,
so that's Mark's bug, he calls it,
and that's just a little logo from his days of
actually manufacturing these for clients,
so I'm a proud owner of Mark's little bug here.