Granite countertops ”Jewelry for your home” Iron Range man expands granite business By LEE BLOOMQUIST, Duluth News Tribune VIRGINIA, Minn. (AP) — It was about six years ago when Bruce Niemi decided to expand his cemetery monument business into the production of granite countertops. Since then, sales at Range Monument & Granite have doubled. ‘‘We call it jewelry for your home,’’ Niemi said of the stunning granite countertops produced at his business near downtown Virginia. ‘‘It’s mother nature stuff.’’ Range Monument & Granite turns 1,000-pound granite slabs into kitchen countertops, vanity tops and tabletops in a new 5,000-square-foot production facility. Some of the granite comes from quarries near Babbitt and Isabella. Other granite slabs, containing unusual granite colors and nature-shaped patterns, are shipped to the company’s production facility from more than a dozen countries. ‘‘They are really probably the only ones I looked at that could personalize your kitchen,’’ said Roger Saccoman, a Hibbing architect who with his wife, Jennifer, recently had the company install African granite kitchen countertops in their 1950s prairie-style home. ‘‘We are really happy with the colors and the grains, but it’s also made our kitchen look different. Everyday I look at it, I see something different.’’ Massive slabs of granite, each 1 1/4 inches thick with patterns, colors and compositions from Zimbabwe, Finland, Brazil, Angola, Argentina, Madagascar, Norway and India, are stocked at Range Monument & Granite display areas. Using more than $400,000 in new high-tech cutting, polishing and edging machinery, Niemi’s company turns the slabs into a product that homeowners say dramatically changes the interior of their homes. Eleonora Lesar and her husband, Barry, in May completely remodeled the kitchen of their Hoyt Lakes home and bought Range Monument and Granite countertops made from granite near Babbitt. ‘‘It’s pretty,’’ said Eleonora. ‘‘It’s shiny, dark and it’s different. They were competitively priced.” and the young fellows who put it in were very personable, were on time, and knew what they were doing. It’s really updated our kitchen a lot. The lines are cleaner and it’s fresher. I like it a lot.’’ About half of the company’s sales are installed in homes being remodeled, Niemi said. Most of the remaining half is installed in new home construction. ‘‘Just watching people’s reaction to it is fun,’’ said Niemi, 54. ‘‘I find people hugging the stuff when we install it.’’ Geographically, most of the company’s business comes from homeowners between International Falls and the Twin Cities and from Ely west to Grand Rapids, said Niemi. In the 1980s prices, the cost of producing and installing granite countertops was about $100 per square foot, said Niemi. However, competition and efficiencies have today dropped starting prices to about $65 per square foot, he said, ‘‘One of the best investments a person can make is in their house,’’ Niemi said. ‘‘This is a lot more affordable than people think. There are places in the country today where you can’t sell a home unless it has granite countertops.’’ Customers who bring in a rough diagram of their countertop areas in about four weeks can have granite countertops selected, designed, cut and installed, Niemi said. ‘‘The customer can come in with a rough sketch, we will sit down with them, give them a quote, and then come out to their home and make a pattern. We will also mount the countertop and sink. When we do a job, you will talk about it the rest of your life,’’ Niemi said. Mike and Debbie Appelwick several years ago had a brown Brazilian granite installed by the company in the kitchen, bathroom and sunroom of their Virginia home. ‘‘It really dresses up those areas,’’ Appelwick said. ‘‘One of the things we were concerned about was staining, but we’ve found it to be very durable. It’s really a nice addition to our home.’’ The company also produces cemetery monuments from locally quarried and imported granite. Niemi, a native of Parkville, near Mountain Iron, worked at the monument business since age 13. As a teenager, he swept floors, cut grass and learned the craft, digging foundations for cemetery monuments. ‘‘I was the runt, so I would get put in the hole and would dig the foundation,’’ Niemi said. Niemi never went to college, instead going to work at an Iron Range taconite plant. While he worked 40 hours a week for eight years at the taconite plant, he worked another 40 hours a week at the monument business. In 1979, he bought the business. ‘‘Basically, I wanted to be self-employed,’’ Niemi said. ‘‘I couldn’t work for someone else. The only bosses I have now are the people who buy our products.’’ Within the last decade, the company bought six lots adjacent to its production facility for outdoor display areas and expansion. In March, the company opened its new 5,000-square-foot high-tech production building housing more than $400,000 in new countertop production equipment. A $200,000 Iron Range Resources loan recently approved helped the company buy the equipment. ‘‘We’ve made all kinds of things for people,’’ Niemi said. ‘‘We’ve made tops for picnic tables, desktops, coffee table tops, and end tables. The demand is huge.’”