Thynes! Thanks so much for giving me the exact name and number for your tile. I had seen your expanded kitchen post and couldn't find the exact tile. You have such a lovely kitchen, so warm and welcoming and the tile really makes a statement. I also see they only have one USA distributor. Your tile in your kitchen looks totally different than on the website..were you able to get a sample or see the tile in a store? I've sent Saltillo an email as well..so we shall see. Thanks again for the information. This post was edited by harleysbud on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 15:25

Thanks for all these responses--very helpful! I'm looking at Cambria Torquay online now, and it looks like we have a few local Cambria dealers. I'll also check out Caesarstone and the others mentioned. Deeageaux, tks for explaining the difference between Corian and quartz. I'm at the very beginning of my research on this, so having only touched one man-made sample (Corian) I assumed they all felt like plastic. Good to know there are so many options. BTW, my 3 cm Vermont Danby Olymipian White marble was reasonably priced than many other white marbles like Calacatta Gold (my Danby was about $85-90 sq ft installed) and I love it. Just had to give the Danby a plug. But I think the Camb ria or another quartz might be the answer for my parents' cottage, because my mom would hate to have to worry about etching, etc. Thanks again!!

I agree with the others, but I'm not quite as emphatic, having just finished a large, pressed-for-time renovation. It was hard--very hard--and we lived in the house (with a child) while it was going on, which made it even harder. Being able to still live in another place while you renovate is an advantage. How long have you lived in Seattle? Have you lived here long enough to fully appreciate how dark and gray it is for so very, very long? I ask because I've seen people move here from other areas and buy houses that they end up hating because there's not enough light. In undertaking a large renovation here (Seattle), I think it's important to be very sure that the house has enough light for you. We ended up adding a couple of windows and some skylights when we did our renovation, and that was as a direct result of having lived here for a while and realizing that there were certain areas of our house where we were desperate for more light. It's hard to know these things without having lived in the house. If you do decided to go ahead, please think carefully about how much natural light you get there. Don't decide based on the light in there over the next few days when it's supposed to be sunnier! In this climate, I really think that fewer uppers and more windows (even with a brick exterior) can help make a kitchen more enjoyable. I do agree with the others that not having lived in the house makes a rushed renovation even harder. We did ours in a similar kind of rush to what you're planning. However, we had lived here for years first, and we knew what issues we had to fix. We'd talked about incorporating two spaces into the kitchen for years. All that casual talk for years ahead of time helped make our very rushed decisions much easier. I can't imagine trying to make all those decisions without having had the basic ideas already in mind from before. If you do decide to go ahead, please post your layouts here and let people go over them. There is a huge amount of wisdom here, and that's something you have on your side--you've found GW! Take advantage of the experience and knowledge you'll get here. It's very helpful to people here if you post both your current kitchen layout and a legible floorplan of your entire first floor. Good luck!

Well long delay in my slabs because I fell down the stairs and wrecked my knee. I finally was mobile yesterday and went out to talk to the slab yard. They managed to sell all three slabs at almost full price last Tuesday. My options then was to make the perimeter counter myself with wood or zinc. I thought very hard about it but gave up the idea and decide to spend money on stone. It will cost me $1500 or so more but ... I can't take the chance of juggling slabs of wood that's 8' long. It only takes one fall to make my situation worse. I already have to have surgery with an expected 3 months in a wheelchair plus months of PT. I just want to get the kitchen somewhat done. I didn't want to spend the $3500 to match the quartzite so I got another clearance. Maximus granite for the perimeter countertop. $200 and it's complimentary to the tone of the quartzite. I would prefer a honed look but clearance buyers can't be picky. I'll have to figure out how to tone down the shine later as I don't want to shell out $750 for the side refinishing. I've got medical bills out the wazoo that's a higher priority. Hopefully, things won't clash too much with three stones. I also need to decide whether to blend in the hood by building a white one to match the upper or make it a statement dark zinc hood.