I REALLY LOVE the marble. However, I've been told that it's a soft stone and stains easily. I have a working kitchen that it used often for holiday dinners. We have lots of little ones in our family (1 have one little one and one big one) and I don't want the kitchen to be a showroom; I want it to be welcoming. I found the PERFECT granite but it was already tagged by another person. It was the same tone as the marble and it's called Tiberious. This particular piece looked drastically different than the other pieces of Tiberious that I was in the warehouse. Here are names of the granite: #1 - Santa Cecelia Java #2 - Mombasa Green #3 - Golden Sparkle (Although it's not a lot, this tile has pink flecks in it that I really don't care for. Other than that it's my second choice behind the marble.) #4 - I don't have the name of this granite Here's one other photo that I didn't include originally. #5 - Giallo Ornamental I don't know if I should start a new thread but I also have to tell my tile guy which layout I'll be choosing. Can you guys also vote on this: Option #1 - Brick Pattern Option #2 - Straight Pattern Option #3 - Diagonal Pattern Here is the floor layout and a few additional shots of my foyer area. The tile is also going into the kitchen which is the doorway with the plastic.

I used a small remnant for the top of a cabinet in the hallway of my previous house. I found it at a prefab place. The remnant was free and the fabrication was around $65. My experience looking at boneyards a couple of years ago was that the material was free as someone else had paid for it previously; you only needed to pay for fabrication. I spent about an hour in the boneyard of a large fabricator last week looking at remnants of quartz - Caesarstone and Silestone - for a vanity that's about 6 feet by 2 feet. I found a couple pieces that would work. I couldn't get anyone to tell me the prices of the remnants. When I finally got the quote for fabrication, it included the full cost of the quartz, no discount at all. I was pretty disappointed to have wasted all that time.

I've had my polished empress green marble(serpentine) counters for two years now and have to say I'm totally pleased with them.(As in, I will never ever have anything but empress green marble counters in any future kitchen ever again. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this stuff)I love to cook...I'm a messy, exuberant experimenter who doesn't often(err, NEVER) cleans up immediately. I cut gnocchi, cookies and what not directly on the stone and my fully clawed cats have gladiator wars every chance they can on the counters. And it's still as pretty as the day it was installed. Does it scratch? Never with anything I've ever done(or the kitties), but the installers did scratch it a bit....they showed hubby how to polish it out easily. They then read us the spiel about how marble was a bad, bad choice. They refused to admit that sepertine was a different stone. My DH was patted on the back with sympathy for having such a difficult wife. I spent a year waiting for something bad to happen to my stone....then spent another year simply not caring. The counter is miles above and beyond my old corian as far as upkeep and care....and I happened to love my corian. Scratches? Piffle. Empress green and Vermont verde are tough. The Vermont Verde is considered tougher than granite. Knowing my Empress green, I believe it.

I've had Cambria quartz for three years now, and I love it. It's impervious! Red wine, beets, curry, whatever -- nothing stains this stuff. No chips or scratches or other damage. I've dropped a jar of jam on it; nothing heavier that I can recall, though. I rest pot lids on it all the time with no problem, but I do always use a trivet for hot pots or pans -- long-standing habit, with my old formica! -- so I can't speak to the potential for damage from those. My only (minor) complaint is that I unwittingly chose a pattern that is a *great* camouflage for crumbs, so I can't always see when it needs wiping down unless I turn bright lights on. And wiping it down with water (sometimes soapy, mostly not) is all I've ever done in terms of cleaning. All in all it's ultra low maintenance, and it looks good: definitely a winner in my book.