I'm sending this -my first post to the bottom of the page. The link below is to my post that I would love to get some input from anyone in the know. Thanks very much! Here is a link that might be useful: my new post with questions about marble fabrication and templating

Hi All! Thanks for the great comments! Brooke - LOL! - Don't you just love it when they get that first burst of defiance? I think that makes you a SWMBO (She who must be obeyed)! Your boys are adorable! My son won't pose for anything lately without making a face -must be an 8 year old (I'm almost 9, Mom!)thing! Or, it's the fact that he is sick of remodeling :-)! And your puppy! One of my best friends named her son Genki - japanese for samurai warrior? I did order samples of a couple pulls, but not sure how they'll look. DH doesn't like cup pulls and not sure about cupboard latches either. Here's the link to the simple pulls I ordered - 2 diff. sizes in old silver finish: http://www.knobs4less.com/Liberty-Kitchen-Cabinet-Hardware/libp10210osc.html Truthfully, I'm not in love with them, but they don't have the drawbacks and foo-fooey details most others do. I also really like the imperfect quality of the finish, look aged. However, I think I'd like to have solid brass with some sort of nickel/silver finish - and, for the price, I'm thinking these are not brass. I did like the look of the marine ice box latch on the other thread.... hmmmm..... I think our problem is we think we can find something different if we keep looking. Truthfully, I found some very expensive ones I really liked, but we need so many, I can't justify the cost to myself. Same problem with lighting! I can't seem to find pendants I like! DH wants something simple. But I sure love your Dining chandelier! I think we just need to get out there and look more, there are certainly options. Problem is, we could go so many different directions. Oh, you will love this! My friend who is the fabricator, sent me an e-mail last week after the slabs arrived at their shop: "I'm going to steal your slabs from the shop and run away....... x K" - she loves the Calacatta too! cpang74 & rhome410 - Thanks - don't hold your breath on Monday, it might take me a few days to get the pics up! pbrisjar - Thanks to you too, I've often read your postings and followed your progress as well! Cute puppies there, for sure! Only 4 more days..... Thanks again all, you have been great support during this fun project!

jesslake: You were correct - I was wrong about the diagonal seams. I got the paperwork back from them and saw they are actually vertical - sorry for my mistake! kathryn p: this is the response I got from them: ". My recommendation is to leave the seams as they are. They are currently placed strategically to avoid breakage of the countertops as your home and cabinets settle over time. All foundations and cabinets shift over time as the ground beneath settles, and having seams placed on either side of the dishwasher and sink help alleviate pressure on the stone during that process. If at any point this happens to your countertops, you simply call Stoneworks to come out and reset the seam, just like during the first installation! However, if we removed or moved the seams, during that same settling process the stone can crack and break, especially in those high traffic areas like dishwashers and sinks." So they kinda make it sound like if I don't use their seam recommendation, then they won't come back out to "reset the seam".

I'm sorry, but fabrication is expensive and these countertops are expensive and so I don't see how working with a customer to make sure they like the templating is "donating time." Are you saying that people spending thousands of dollars on countertops should just take it however the fabricator decides (which would likely be whatever is most convenient for him and never mind how it looks in the end or if the customer likes it)? There are several people in the trades on this board who seem to have rather dim views of their customers. I don't understand this because you make your living off of these people. I do understand that some people are more difficult than others, but that's how it goes, right? I interact with my clients every day that I'm at work. So, I do understand how some people can be, but...there are so many threads on here with photos of stuff that's really not acceptable. My Dad worked in construction. He did work for both general contractors and for individual homeowners. He took pride in his work, did a good job and wanted his customers to be happy with the work he did. He had no problem taking time to make sure these things happened and he worked REALLY hard, often in unpleasant weather, to produce a good quality finished product. I never heard him complain about anything...not the heat that he worked in over the summers, the lack of bathroom facilities on many of his jobsites, the condition his job left his hands in, etc. He never complained that his customers wanted a good job or that he had to spend time with them. He also didn't gouge people or charge more when he was busy. He didn't call any of his customers a PITA or try to charge anyone a PITA fee or anything like that. I see many tradesmen, contractors, etc., these days, who seem to have really big egos, look down on their customers, try to take advantage of customers whenever they can, who feel entitled to be paid a lot of money for a minimum amount of work (or poor quality work), who refuse to take hard jobs because they are only looking to do what's easy, and who take no pride in their finished product. I'm not saying this is anyone here, but I am saying that you often seem pretty quick to criticize the customers, who are paying a lot of money and who mostly just want a good job in exchange for their money. Overall, I've been very disappointed with most of the people I've hired to do work on my home. No, I've not hired anywhere near the cheapest guys and, yes, I've been willing to pay for someone who does quality work. You can jump to calling me a PITA, if you want, but then we could talk about how much I've paid/been willing to pay (much more per hour than my husband or I have ever earned and we make a decent living) and I have photos to show the poor quality of work these guys have tried to leave us with. We could also talk about the way some of these men have acted in my home (regarding bathroom facilities that I provided, the use of my refrigerator/icemaker, etc.) and about the shocking lack of any work ethic (sheer laziness and lack of any pride in their work, not caring about the quality of their work and trying to take advantage of us in many ways, including by trying to pass off horrible quality work as perfectly fine/a good job) some of them have displayed. We could also talk about the various lies we've been told by multiple people we've talked to about doing jobs. Thank goodness we know enough to mostly prevent ourselves from being taken advantage of... Then, we could talk about the experiences of a good friend who is a single woman and how everyone she has hired over the past 15 years (and she's paid them a LOT and has never tried to hire anyone on the cheap) has basically taken advantage of her, charging a LOT and then doing subpar work. Things have changed, and not for the better. It seems that you can't trust anyone these days. I'd NEVER pay thousands of dollars for new countertops and then not be present for both templating and installation. If someone tried to charge me for that, I would find someone else. If I couldn't find someone else, I'd put in countertops myself (tile, butcherblock or maybe cut soapstone myself--which is what a family member did and it looks beautiful) before I'd allow myself to be treated that way.