You are so asking the wrong girl here cause this time as every time... I am in the splurge camp. I would live with plywood if I had to, for however long it took to save the extra cash, to get what I really really wanted. So yea... SPLURGE. You can live with blue tape hardware, no backsplash, a bare light bulb instead of a chandy, and so forth. But once your counters are done, they are done. What is the point (for arguments sake) of spending 5K to be only satisfied if $800 more gets you what you want?

Such a delicate balance, want-need-budget. My inclination would be to spend the extra $800 here and take it out of something(s) else, maybe appliances or cabinet glazing? The countertops are something you're going to see first and foremost, along with the cabs, for years and years. If you truly aren't really seeing anything else you love, AND what you're drawn to always turns out to be Delicatus, that tells you something.

Hint: you can be happy with your current phone with it's, ahem, crappy camera, and there you saved a couple of hundred right off the bat. I know, that's cheating, but still...

Plus, by getting the $15 per sq ft discount on the Delicatus, let's not forget the fact that I am basically saving about $800. I would be losing money if I didn't guy it. Am I doing this right?

Now I just need to get my husband to buy this sort of logic.

Your cabinets go with that granite so well...go for it!

I vote YES, do it!

In the grand scheme of your kitchen remodel $800 isn't so much you can't make it up elsewhere. I think you'll kick yourself If you settle for something you don't love. I should note that I have Bianco Antico which is sooooooo similar, and I love it

Go with your heart. It's NOT something you can change later!! We just had Delicatus Brown installed in November and absolutely love it!!! But I only needed 25sq. ft., so it was affordable for us.

I, too, looked at many, many granite slabs and kept going back to the beauty of Delicatus!!

jody

Kellie,
Do you have a fabricator yet? I put a deposit on my marble and a few months later chose my fabricator. Even though I had already paid for my marble, the fabricator had them recalculate the price based on his contractors discount and passed the savings on to me, almost $1000 dollars! And I never even asked for a discount. I don't think the stone place was too happy, but they do a lot of business with this fabricator. Anyway, you can ask your contractor is he can get you a discount, or ask the stone yard to give you the contractors price. In my case retail was $63.20 and contractors was $50.56, so that's 20% savings. I was pretty shocked that he did that actually. $15 a foot sounds like a really good discount. The counter top is a big part of a kitchen, make sure to get what you really love, even if you have to skimp on something else that is less important.

The counter is something you will touch everyday. It is something you will look at everyday. It will bring you much joy, every day. I also have Bianco Antico. It is very similar. I am not tired of it yet. I still love the look in people's eyes when they see it for the first time (and 2nd time, and 3rd...). The fact that it is not in everyone else's kitchen is a plus. It's not some bizarre wild granite that you have to worry about "what was I thinking?" down the road.

It is speaking to you. You know what it is saying. Reduce your budget on something else. You will not regret it because it will be that beautiful forever.

I would do BA again in next kitchen, but lately all of the slabs I'm seeing are just not what they used to be. They don't make my heart sing. I'm actually thinking of pulling the trigger and going with marble. Talk about trying to work a deal!

Good luck, follow your heart.

If you don't get enough support here, post on the Holiday Forum. They call themselves the Enablers.

I love my delicatus.... I think it's worth it.

I love my delicatus too. Splurge on this. You look at it every day and you'll be so upset if you don't do it. PLus $800 is cheap compared to the price of not loving something completely. AND- if you don't think you were going to be able to stay in budget on the granite, you were probably going to end up somewhere in the middle anyway so its not even really an $800 increase :)

Another vote for "go for it"!! I also love Delicatus and plan to possibly to use it for my own remodel (I don't know if I can afford it either). Besides your cabinets, your counters are probably the next most expensive purchase for your kitchen.... and one that is not easily changed out, like an appliance. Don't live with regrets!!

Ditto on what everyone else said above! In the grand scheme of things, you can save $800 elsewhere, but this is your only chance to get the counters you love!

I had a gorgeus kitchen in a million dollar home once with top of the line everything. But the budget ran out by the time we thought about the counters. Went with something we didn't really want.

Fast forward to today, and my smaller older house. You bet I got the soapstone and walnut I wanted. Skimp on other areas to get what you want. Don't wait 15 years like I did. You won't regret it.

I am sure it a small percent of the overall budget so go for it! U have to live with it every morning, noon and night!

Figure out a way you can cut back and save 800 in the next few month. No eating out, movies, meat etc. Then you can rationalize the 800 and feel better. Definitely get it!!! It's so gorgeous.

When is your next remodel? If you think about it in years, 10, 15, 20 years from now the 800 dollars spread out over the years doesn't seem that much. The appliances will probably need replacing before the counters do! It might not hurt to mention that you have a budget that you are trying to stick to and see if they will come down in price a wee bit more. All you can do is ask and you won't know unless you try. All they can say is no but at least you know that you tried. The granite looks lovely with your doors. I say splurge! Good luck!

If you stay in the house 10 years then it's only an additional $80 per year :)

I don't remember your layout - do you have an island? I really want quartz and I am trying to justify it by only putting it on the perimeter and something less expensive like butcher block on the island. Can you do something similar?

"If you stay in the house 10 years then it's only an additional $80 per year "

Which is about 22 cents per day.

See how we can help you justify it? I bet you can find 22cents every day, in your purse, coat pockets, in the car, just keep looking.

i agree - splurge. have a yard sale, sell some stuff on craigslist, amazing what you can find in the closets to generate a bit of cash!

I love my delicatus so much. Every time I look at it I find something "new" in it. It makes me so happy.

See if you can cut back on something else to get the counter top you really like.

Don't do it. One splurge will lead to another. Just kidding! I agree with all the others. Find something else to save a little on. Didn't you mention that your DH was in sales. My DH is and over the years, I've frequently suggested that if he needs to sell just a little bit more to cover the cost of this or that. Can't wait to hear your final decision and see your remodel get under way. Good luck.

Go for it!! And try saving somewhere else. I too was very budget conscious when granite shopping and like you I was always drawn to the Delicatus and could spot it anywhere. At one the larger granite yards near Boston I had put my head to the stone and was caressing it and the salesman said something like "I think it wants to go home with you". My DH finally gave in knowing that I would never be happy with anything else so we ended up getting Delicatus Brown and I love it. I find something new every day and like Bee I love seeing the look on peoples� faces when they see it for the first time.

Coming at this with 20/20 hindsight, I would say "no" don't do it - at least not this way. I would start my search over again and call granite yards telling them how many square feet you need, what your budget is, and that you're in love with delicatus. Ask them only to show you granites with the look and feel of delicatus in your price range. I think you will end up with one of two results:

1 - one of the suppliers will "find" you a slab that the can sell you of the actual delicatus within your budget, or

2 - you will find something you love just as much with the same look and feel

Kitchen reno's have too many areas that go unexpectedly over budget -- if your budget for granite is workable/reasonable I would keep to it because you're likely to need that extra $800 (and more, probably) for something unforeseeable.

Ahhh, you guys. I knew that I could count on you. So, the cutting of the budget elsewhere thing won't really help (my eyes are already bigger than my budget), but the cutting back spending in my daily life sure rang true. I told my husband that once we decided that we were going to reno the kitchen, I cut back my spending drastically. In the first week I bought NOTHING extra. And by nothing I mean not a cup of coffee, not a pack of gum, NOTHING. And while that has let up a bit in the weeks since I know that I have been saving quite a bit more than usual.

So, the question now is...will they honor the quote? Like I said, it was the supplier who offered it, the owner of the granite place (also the fabricator, the price quote includes installation) had kind of dazed look on his face as the guy left. In front of them I crossed out the $80/sq ft on my price sheet and change it to $65. Surely that is a binding agreement, right! Now just to wait until the husband gets back into town to drag him out to look.

Decide based on what is easiest to upgrade: appliances, faucets, and lighting.

Cut the cost of appliances by keeping your old ones (unless built-in) and getting lightly used ones from a dealer or Craigslist. Use a super-cheap faucet for now, and hang a bare bulb from the wires.

But GET THE GRANITE! You can't upgrade it as easily as you can a faucet or a dishwasher.

Countertops (like cabinets) are an expensive (and hopefully permanent) part of a kitchen remodel. In my opinion, splurging on a counter material that you just love is the right decision in the long run. Of course I'm saying this without knowing your actual budget or how this might impact your life. Personally, I would figure out whatever I had to do in order to afford the stone I loved. Delicatus is beautiful and I think once you have it in your kitchen, every day you will be saying to yourself (and probably out loud sometimes) "I love it! I'm so glad I splurged on getting the stone I wanted."

Splurge, splurge, splurge!! Unless you will be comfortable saying to yourself everyday "Gee, I'm sure glad I went with my #2 choice and saved $800."

Im almost 60 and have lived in this house with builder-grade cabinets and laminate counters for 27 years. Fourteen years ago I settled and just painted the cabinets, got new appliances and a new laminate counter (Corian was the thing back then, but I didn't want to spend the $$--sound familiar?) Im getting what I want this time around! Hey, I may never live long enough to do another kitchen remodel or have a new kitchen(when we retire in 5-6 years and move away). Life's too short..you won't regret it! The Delicatus is beautiful with your dark cabinets!!

I have been obsessed with Delicatus since we went to the granite yard. We have the cherry cabinets as well. We picked out something different in the kitchen which we both agreed upon that was in our contract. Then, when choosing for our hutch and bathroom I asked the granite saleswoman if we could get a more expensive "remnant" for the same price. She said yes. So we went out back and chose a more expensive black granite for our hutch and then we saw brown delicatus. We just stared at it in awe. It was so different and the lines were just beautiful. Lady said it was a special order and really pricey. So we got it for the bathroom. Coming in tomorrow, I can't wait to see it. Anyway, point is, if you have a separate area in the kitchen such as an island or hutch, you could do delicatus there and then do something more in budget in the rest of the kitchen.

I have the bare-bulb dining room fixture (remodelinfla!). And I'm getting the wood I really really want on my cabs (grain-matched walnut from Scherr's)

My rule?

If you can make the changes elsewhere (cheaper faucet, wait for a new frig, whatever),
and
So long as it doesn't go on a credit card, and you aren't cutting on your retirement/savings/medication/mortgage, fill-in-the-blank . . . . get at the very least the one thing that you covet for your new space!

buy it. Then cut back on the things you don't see.

There was a thread on here about using MDF vs plywood on cabinet carcasses. This is where you could save that extra money on something you'll never see.

Every time I managed to notice a recurring strong preference for something in our kitchen, and went ahead and bought it, I have been so happy with the outcome. It's telling you something that you keep coming back to the same granite.

SPLURGE!!!!!

Most likely the fabricator is still making a profit.
It might not be a giant profit but in this economy he
(I assume this is a male granite installer owned co)
will still make more money selling the granite at a
lower price rather than having the slabs sit in his
warehouse. Make sure it is in writing! And pick your
seam placement along with sink etc... Sorry, I am
nagging. I think I am hanging around teenagers too
much.

Looking forward to seeing the beautiful stone with
your cabs.
~boxer

Well, I splurged! Took my husband back to look, the owner remembered and honored the price, and I put the money down. We also got discounted the cost for tax by not financing or putting it on a credit card, so in the end it was only "over budget" by a couple hundred bucks. We are still at least 4 weeks out from cabinet delivery, so I have time to study up on the templating process and start envisioning backsplashes.

As waterdamage mentioned, when you start to notice trends in your preferences, you can feel strongly that you will be happy with your choice. I am pretty happy about it.

Congrats! And at only a few hundred more, you would have been kicking yourself if you hadn'tgotten it. Delicatus is beautiful. Our stone yard had a huge island of it on display and it was striking. Alas, it did not go with our cabinets. I hope you will enjoy for many years...and don't forget to post pics!

Yay!!!!! Glad you got what you wanted!

I was going to suggest that since next month is Feb, this can be your joint Valentine's Day gift to each other. Maybe write each other a letter or card instead of exchanging or going out for an expensive meal (eat some nice takeout or make a special dinner at home). You can skip the chocolates, flowers, etc... and get something you will enjoy forever. Dh and I have gotten many items this way by making it a joint birthday gift(a week apart) or Xmas gift. This way we both get something we want for real and it takes away the guilt. It also takes pressure off of dh from choosing a gift, which he may appreciate!

Kellienoelle, I am so glad you splurged and bought what you loved and I know you will be very happy!

Glad to hear you decided on your granite. It is going to look great.

Are Delicatus and Bianco Antico really similar? I love the Bianco and this looks so much like it! I am glad that you got what you loved. Hooray!

Glad you decided to go for it. I have a different delicatus than most on the forum... or at least it looks very different... But I *love* it. Every time I look at it I find something new and interesting :)

I'm just reading this post a couple months later, but I am so glad you got your Delicatus! Is it in yet? Would love to see pictures because we are right where you were in January.... I keep being "drawn" to Delicatus (which is only one of the many names it seems to be called!) and I think DH is now agrees that it is so much nicer than the Level 1 stones everyone else has. We will have white cabinets, and I like the way Delicatus looks with them. We haven't found the right stone (or price!) yet, but at this point, I'm more than ready to go over-budget to get a countertop I can be excited about (as opposed to spending less for a granite I'm "ho-hum" about.) Sure hope you are happy with your decision and look forward to seeing your photos when yours is in!