Ossiemom - I feel your pain and know exactly how frustrated you must be. We've been living in our basement (thank goodness for that since it would be an even bigger issue if we were in a hotel!) for 2 weeks now while the floor company tries to get our hardwood floors to look decent. And I say decent since I'll accept even that at this point! So what should have been a 4-5 day job is now going into week 3 and we still may have to start over - it's infuriating! Anyway, I'm sure they must have done this, but just thought I'd ask to make sure - did they seal all the granite when they put it in? The reason I ask is that we used 2 slabs of Cambrian black that weren't from the same lot and they looked completely different before sealing. One was much lighter than the other, however after sealing they look exactly the same to me. We knew this though PRIOR to buying them, so it wasn't a surprise. For some reason one slab already had sealer on it and the other didn't when they were brought to the stone supplier. We had them put sealer on a test piece from the lighter one just to see how it looked and we couldn't tell the difference. I would think that they would have sealed your granite if it requires sealing though, so then it definitely isn't acceptable if they look different! Good luck - I hope you get everything worked out to your satisfaction!

I have selected this Brazilian Quartzite (called CRISTALITA WHITE) for my kitchen countertops...two book matched slabs. The slabs are being sent to the fabricator. No one at the distributor was able to tell me what the coppery looking areas/veins are. I do like them a lot, but I am wondering if they are going to cause any problems down the road, based on what is in this thread. They are smooth to the touch areas - same as the light gray/white that surrounds them. Does anyone have any experience with this type of stone - Brazilian quartzite with copper/iron veining? A second question is that these slabs are currently polished, and I was leaning towards a honed finish. Initially, my fabricator told me that they hone all quartzites as a policy, based on their experiences and outcomes. But now he is saying that my slabs don't need to be honed - they should stay polished. I have used this fabricator before with excellent results, so I trust them, but I am looking for input from other professionals and remodelers regarding my specific type of quartzite slabs with the veining. Thanks.

Worthy, I don't think "welcoming" was really high on the list for the facades facing that street at the time they were designed. At the time, the street they were on still had the potential to be little more than a feeder for a planned cross town expressway one major block south. That project was quashed in the early post Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses era. Fortress like, was more like it. However there are large glass areas in other parts of these houses. My house is on a slightly quieter street and is less forbidding but it still appears have few windows. But in reality the entire front of the house is a ribbon of windows at the first floor ceiling line, which lets in a lot of light, and they don't have to be covered because no one can see in. The more conventional houses on the street with normal or large windows have closed window treatments all the time. I have none. And there are two walls of glass in my house. They are just in areas that aren't apparent from the front street level. So in an urban context at least, I can understand the importance of the inside vs. the outside appearance. However, I do agree that it is different for a lone standing house on it's own lot when you are starting from scratch. But I am not so sure that the exterior is undervalued, so much as it is a reflection of the convoluted floor plan of the interior. And many of these houses are just as convoluted in plan as they look in elevation.

If it's done correctly, it WON'T chip within a year! Prep is VERY important. Just getting them clean takes some serious effort - years of oily film on them. A good scrub using something like Greased Lightening spray cleaner, a good rinse with clear water, and a week to dry, is the first step. Then sanding the doors and cabinet face. We chose to leave our doors up when we painted - DH was terrified the old holes would become too big and hinges would never again fit properly. So, we painted around the hinges, and then used mineral spirits to carefully remove and paint gotten on them (think Q-tips!). We used a good oil-based primer, and then we used oil-based enamel to paint the doors and frames. We did NOT paint the interiors of the cabinets or the interior of the doors - unnecessary work and could cause fit problems (these were partial over-lay/partial inset doors). This took such a long time, that curing was not an issue - we could only do a couple each weekend, and this was just the uppers. I took the dogs and went to a long dog-show weekend. DH locked the cats out of the kitchen and finished the lowers while we (and all that HAIR) were away. I don't know how we could've done them otherwise. They lasted, with NO chips for 19 year when we re-painted them due to color change. Those lasted another 13 years until we re-did the entire kitchen (not do to chips on cabinets - there weren't any!). Most people don't have the time or the patience. They hire a cheap house painter who slaps a coat of acrylic paint on and calls it a day. These will not last. Having them sprayed professionally with a conversion varnish is getting close to the price of new cabinets. I would only do this if I loved the layout of the kitchen, the lowers had lots of big, deep drawers, and I just didn't like the color/finish of the high quality cabinets.