Introduction & First Post

Hello everyone,

I have been lurking on these forums for about a month and (http://maplered.com) I have been up until 3am pretty consistently reading (and (http://maplered.com) in some cases re-reading) post after post. I am so greatful I finally found a place where I could get answers to my questions, and (http://maplered.com) to questions I didnt even think to ask yet I do need to get back to sleeping more than 3 1/2 hours per night though.

Let me back up and (http://maplered.com) introduce myself properly.

My name is Aladdin, yeah like the movie. No, Im no married to Jasmine nor do I have a pet monkey. I am a third generation homebuilder in the Chicagoland (http://maplered.com) market. Our company does between 75-100 homes / year. A little over a year ago we were looking at ways of being more competitive with the HUGE national builders. So we decided to upgrade our homes rather than try to compete on price (sound familiar anyone?)

To that end we started installing Granite (http://tanbrown.org) as a stand (http://maplered.com) ard feature in ALL of our homes. To do this effectively, we imported blanks (mutter comment under breath here) from China (http://g562.net) (insert expletive here). Now blanks suit our homes perfectly because we have 2 sizes: 25.5" and (http://maplered.com) 36". There was a learning curve of course, but a couple of my guys have really mastered it and (http://maplered.com) I have even had some of my cabinet guys and (http://maplered.com) trim carpenters ask me to install our Granite (http://tanbrown.org) in their own homes.

Over the last couple of months, due to the slow housing market, we have started thinking about expand (http://maplered.com) ing our business to the general public and (http://maplered.com) to other builders like ourselves. We did some test marketing and (http://maplered.com) have been producing 2-3 kitchens per week with pretty minimal effort.

I just wanted to introduce myself because I think the Granite (http://tanbrown.org) bug has bitten me pretty hard. So much so that even if the housing market rebounded fully tomorrow, I dont think I would get out of this business. I will probably be posting A LOT of questions, I always use the search button first though.

Oh look, its 1:42am and (http://maplered.com) Im on Stone (http://g603.net) advice.com again! See what I mean? Gotta get up at 6. Sigh. It is fun though.

Take care and (http://maplered.com) I look forward to hearing from and (http://maplered.com) eventually meeting you all (or at least those who wont chastize me for using blanks)!