Quarry Road Trip

Today we took a road trip to Poultney, a small town on the border of Vermont and New York, to pick up slate tile for our bathroom that was mined at a quarry there. I had never been to a quarry site, and while we really only saw the processing area and storage yard, I have to say it was pretty cool.

Rows and rows of slate slabs and tile in every size and shape imaginable were stacked over acres of land, and a mound of "castaway" cuts tossed at one end of the property looked to be almost a story high.

We got to see a large, industrial wet saw in action, in addition to several workers splitting slabs by hand using what looked like a sharp, thin wedge and a hammer. The wedge was placed at the edge of the slab, and pounded with a hammer to create the split. The slate separated straight as an arrow down the middle, creating two smooth slabs where before there had only been one.

The day was actually very nice, with temps around 50 and sunny, blue skies, so it was really nice to get out and take a drive. We get such tunnel vision with our work on the house that it becomes necessary to break up the routine and go somewhere new once in a while.

In other news, the demo in the bathroom was finished yesterday and the shower kit we ordered online arrived today, so we have everything we need to get started putting this bathroom back together. Being complete amateurs, I'm guessing it will take through the end of April to complete it. After the bathroom is done, we will tackle a custom murphy bed for the bedroom before turning our attention to the three season room off the downstairs bedroom. Needless to say, there will be lots more house remodeling and DIY posts over the next few months, so stay tuned if you like that kind of thing!