Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

That's very industrious.   We like to rearrange a room in our current house and that would be cool to have a detachable cabinet like that for a tree or other reasons.

re: counter tops

I really like concrete counters.  you can get into whatever shape you want, color it throughout and inlay whatever you want, infuse it with anything from stones to glass.. it is spectacularly strong if using the correct mix/ratio.  you can pour in place or do it offsite and transport- I prefer in place.  I've done several in the last couple years, mostly outside kitchens.  I have a relative who does cabinets (high quality) and as an extension started doing counters, and he loves the concrete.  he did a job at another relatives house and it is stunning.... 

I like concrete counters, too, drew.  Although I haven't yet had the chance to install them.

We're currently in our "family home" and I really like it.  It's large, has a couple extra bedrooms, huge kitchen with an open floorplan to the great room, built-in pool and spa, and tons of other great things.  I love the neighborhood (a suburb of Austin that feels a lot more like the "small town" Austin was when I was growing up in the 70s and early 80s), I love our neighbors, I love our schools, it's really the perfect place to raise our kids.

However-- it's very traditional and although well-built, still pretty cookie-cutter McMansion-y.  And my tastes are actually QUITE modern.  So although the house is great for our purposes, it's definitely not my dream home.

One of my best friends of all time, I've known him since 4th grade and we remain great friends to this day, is an architect and specializes in modern design.  I've already told him he'll be designing my next home, which will be a "glass box" on acreage somewhere in the hill country west of Austin.   Super clean, super modern.

And it will have concrete countertops everywhere I can put them.

I have "learned" that washing dishes in the bathroom sink is not easy.

My favorite wine bar in Cincy installed a concrete bar.  It was rather interesting.  They inserted bottoms of wine bottles in the concrete which was colored a dark purplish brown.  The guy doing the work explained a lot of it to me.

First time I had seen it.

yes, it is reinforced.  some folks use rebar and tied together old fashioned style....  some use wire mesh, which is what i use.  i also use a kevlar fiber mix.  insofar as flex, this is where the mix is super important.  we're NOT talking 'quickcrete' like you would use for a sidewalk or post... the mixes intended for counters can flex some, and can resist temperature changes much better than regular concrete.... it's all about the cement in the concrete and the type of substrate.    

i assure you without qualification that if you were to see concrete and granite or even all three (adding quartz to the list) side by side, and if the concrete was done with intent to appear like the others, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.   atop of that, you can repair concrete where it can't be detected, where as granite and quartz? ain't gonna happen... you can get it 'close', and perhaps to a degree only you will notice, but concrete? you can literally hide it where it's undetectable.

https://www.concretenetwork.com/countertop-mix/

I was reading stuff 8-10 years back about how stainless steel appliances were "out".  Black was the new fad.  We were about to redo our kitchen, so I paid attention, and then went with SS.

I'm cautious about "fads".  I like concrete, but I am pretty sure some wife touring the house would say "I love the house, but we'd have to tear out that countertop and replace it with granite.".

I'm cautious about "fads".  I like concrete, but I am pretty sure some wife touring the house would say "I love the house, but we'd have to tear out that countertop and replace it with granite.".

that wife certainly wouldn't bother me
would only cause me to cherish the counter top more
but, I understand about the feelings of the wife that really mattered