I don't have one of the colors you mentioned, but I do have photos: I LOVE our counters. They are LivingStone brand, which is virtually the same as Corian. The integrated sink is Corian brand. We are a young family w/4 year old and one on the way. I don't have time/patience for counter maintenance; DH and I both work outside the home and we do most of our own cooking. I wanted a light color with a matte finish. I didn't want laminate (too many bad experiences w/seams lifting etc). I didn't want to deal with keeping sink caulk clean. I didn't want something that would shatter dishes as I am a klutz--now that we have an unforgiving tile floor, I am especially glad we considered this b/c I have knocked many things against the counter in the course of working in the kitchen (and they are still intact, vs the tile where everything explodes into a million specks). An additional plus--our counters actually let some light thru, so the few base cabs we have (as opposed to drawers) are easier to see into. I can understand the appeal of natural stone and I agree it has depth/beauty that "plastic" doesn't capture; we looked at it, but in the end LivingStone was a better choice for us, financially as well as daily life. I embraced the choice of doing what worked best for me, not what is most popular. Our neighborhood is mostly starter homes, and few of the 1970s kitchens have even been updated. We not only updated but completely changed/improved the layout, which I think will have more impact for resale than natural stone counters. Secondly, we don't know when we might have an opportunity to "upgrade" so doing what works for us was the best choice. We've had our new kitchen/counters/sink about 1 1/2 years and I have had zero problems. The one "stain" I got was from an orange piece of junk mail paper where water was on the counter and the paper was left in the puddle for a few days and allowed to dry. Bleach took it right out.

I think this varies with climate. In a theater of seasons, the outdoor kitchen will require turnoff of water in winter and turnon in spring. You won't have many outdoor guests at temps below about 50 degrees and even then, you're wearing coats and eating s'mores or hot rum--a kitchen is not necessary. I suspect that most outdoor kitchens are for parties. Do you give parties? Big parties? How often would a two person household use an outdoor kitchen? Or is this an ego thing...Does the person at the grill crave an audience? Are you so addicted to cold beverages that you can't tolerate a whole walk to kitchen for another bottle? I've seen some beautiful stone or brick ones at the patio store near us. Then I think about keeping them clean--you'd have to have a spigot, hose and hosewinder close buy so you can de-spiderweb and clean up the outdoor kitchen before use. We have squirrels everywhere in our yard, letalone dogs, other critters, and bird doo. Would you trust open work surfaces without a good scrub-down? Add the time that it takes for the patio and outdoor kitchen to dry off afterward...and would it be dirty again soon on a windy day? And how do you handle hornets? Gotta keep things scrupulously clean. As for me, if I had an outdoor refrigerator I'd have one more thing to try to keep track of. "Is there beer in the outdoor refrig? And will the neighbor kids find it?" "Is there anything rotting in that second refrig outside, the one we were crazy to buy?" If there are dirty dishes, who washes them and is there light to do it or do you wait until morning ... or just haul them on a tray to the indoors kitchen?" If there is an outdoor dishwasher, do you store beverage glasses, plates, tableware outdoors or lug stuff from kitchen both ways anyway? ____ Here's what I need to augment my deck: a weatherproof, spiderwebproof place to store a few items: salt & pepper, napkins, serving spoons, matches, pencil and notepaper, extra basting brushes. I've considered a mailbox but haven't found one that doesn't look like a mailbox, yet. On another note, I have bought DH a clip-on LED battery powered gooseneck light for his Weber grill as a Christmas present. We use the grill year-round and it's pretty dark out there right now, at suppertime. Should prove a help to determine whether the meat is pink or raw.

Hi, anyone from Vancouver Canada? I have been trying to find a source for a Corian solid surface shower pan but am having a difficult time finding one. I've called a few bathroom supply stores and went to a few Home Depot and they only have the ugly acrylic ones and only in white, Corian.com does not even mention this type of product so why is that? If it's such a great product why wouldn't they advertise it?

When we bought this house, the kitchen had arctic white Corian counter tops and an integrated tiny-tiny-itty-bitty shallow sink. The door into the dining room is too close to the sink wall for the lower cabinets to be full depth, (too close to put a dishwasher in the sink wall, either). I think that is a large part of why the prior owner, way back when, who put in the Corian, went with such a tiny sink. A drop-in 22" deep sink is not possible with this depth of counter top. We weren't ready for remake of the kitchen at that time, but really wanted a oversized sink so we bought a large single copper, living surface apron front. This was 5-6 years ago. It took an old-school Corian installer less than one day to cut out the old sink and install the new (under mount, apron front), including bringing several leftover samples of arctic white from the 80's from his backyard heap of leftovers, finding a perfect scrap match, for stitching in the counter top deck for the new faucet area behind the sink. I've posted similar photos in another thread before...[Link] House / kitchen, as purchased: mid-install: before final caulking/silicone: