I just had to post here...OMG...the lady that wrote Laminate and luxurious in the same sentence.."NO". I hope I never have to meet someone like you in my lifetime. What a bunch of snobby, snarky..people! I am sorry..I think you can have a beautiful, luxurious kitchen without paying for granite, quartz, soapstone...etc. My goodness. I am building a house now and get to hear from our subs about all of the snooty women that they have to deal with...literally walking out of a house because the closets aren't big enough... What kind of country have we become? I say..if you want to buy high end appliances...beautiful cabinets..and put it all in a laminate kitchen. I think it can be stunning! Don't listen to all of these snooty fruities.....do what YOU want..and the people that matter...won't walk into your kitchen and take a mental note of your laminate..I would think it was beautiful! And for those of you who think that I must be some low life...my husband is a doctor! There....rant over! :-)

ugh.... we are just at this point now and realized that our new counter/breakfast bar is 12' with the sink cutout dead center. My wife is stuck on an undermount and we really wanted granite... we will, of course, be getting a few fabricators to bid it. But is it feasible to do the seam with a cutout at the seam? The front edge of the sink seems a bit vulnerable to me. Also the current layout has the dishwasher adjacent to the sink and I guess we'd need to get the cabinet built with a support at the seam. If we can seam at the sink it would be small, just the length of the front setback (breakfast bar transitions to countertop there)... how well does the bullnose normally line up on a seam? Do they polish it on-site? Are we better off getting used to NOT granite? The 12' counter is not negotiable in our design.

I would strongly recommend AGAINST buying ANY CounterBalance product... they will completely hose the homeowner / DYI consumer. Just compare the price for the brackets between http://counterbalanceshop.com and http://www.chemical-concepts.com/counterbalance.php The same product will cost you $114 at the first site and $81 at the second. Really??? THEY ARE BOTH THE SAME VENDOR. I tried to place an order based upon the info on the Chemical site (didn't even know about the counterbalance site) and they wouldn't honor the price posted. Don't do business with this vendor who isn't interested in doing business with you. Vendor's words: "I could care less about" selling to consumers. STAY AWAY !!! Find a local machine shop who is interested in doing business at a fair price/profit. The product is a VERY simple job for any machine shop to produce. Chemical concepts doesn't even make the product -- they sell glue. For the person who wanted to know where they could get metal support bars, here is an option: http://metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/MWSRCH?N=32003649 I don't have any experience with them, so I don't know if their prices/policies are good or bad. I just found them from doing a bit of searching.

Thank you BeastBaby - I will check out the link. Some other links I have found here at GW have led me to Perfectplank.com, Boos Block Countertop, Hardwood-lumber.com, and my bookmark bar is crowded with different threads that feature tons and tons of pictures. Great resources here! I will also check with my builder for sources, if he ever returns my emails... Already we're doing the client/builder dance! And we haven't even started yet! (OTOH, I'm avoiding the emails of another builder who already submitted his bid, while I wait for Builder #1 to get back to me. So it goes both ways.) Thank you chocolatebunny - my gut is telling me the same as yours, dark stone, dark wood, white cabs. I will probably choose Absolute Black, even though it wasn't my first choice, that would have been slate, but the saleswoman at the countertop store, who was VERY opinionated, immediately told me slate is a poor choice because it flakes, or sheds, I can't remember the word she used, and she doesn't like concrete because it's too porous and picks up stains, and marble and recycled glass are outside my budget, and I don't think that very sparkly, busy granite will fit in my kitchen... Next thing you know, I'm down to Absolute Black. But I have a feeling it's so popular because it really does look good in a lot of kitchens. So that's where we stand at the moment.