I don't know about honed granite, but I have the marble...and HATE it. Marble etches and stains badly and once it is done, it is there forever~~ AFTER I had it installed, I was told to never use marble around the sink area of a kitchen.....too little, too late~~

Honestly, if you are planning to sell the house soon, I would probably get some nice granite. That will appeal to the most people, and will still look brand new and perfect in a year. I always say that if you are planning to stay in a house for at 5 years or so, you should do exactly what you want. But if you really are planning to sell in a year or two, think about mass appeal.

No. It shows spots, requires too much maintenance, and is generally a pain in the neck.

I don't have honed black granite (I'm one of those with Calacatta and LOVE it!) but I do know that it shows fingerprints quite easily -- it's the oil which mars the stone.

I totally agree with jeannie -- if you're planning on selling soon (as you wrote you are) I'd keep an eye on "mass market" and what are popular selling phrases in your local real estate market: I'm going to assume granite and quartz (like Silestone, CaesarStone, Zodiaq) would be the top two choices.

liverpoolfan, forgive me if you've been discussing this, but what does this kitchen look like? Would a polished black granite look okay? If you really like the honed finish, what about CaesarStone's Raven, which can come in a honed finish?

Based on most of the people I know, though (not the obsessed kitchen remodelers like we find here!), a polished finish seems to be really popular -- are you sure you want a honed finish? I'm just thinking of potential buyers walking into your house, your kitchen, and having that "wow!" moment.

I happen to LOVE a honed finish, but I'm just trying to think of what will be best for nearly-imminent resale.

Thanks for the responses. I'm definitely in an odd situation - I'm going for mass appeal, yet I also have strong personal tastes that I don't want to ignore. I love the honed finish, and personally just don't like the polished look. Caesarstone is something I had thought about, and will definitely look into. Right now I'm just trying to rule in or out the things I like - due to price, maintenance etc.

At the moment the kitchen is looking like it will have cherry shaker cabinets. I don't know what the floors will look like as I still don't know what is underneath the current 50's vinyl. Hopefully there is usable maple under there - if not I'll probably go with a light grey slate tile.

When all is said and done we might decide that the room is too 'dark' to have a black countertop - in that case we'd probably go with one of the light creamy caesarstones.

Anyway thanks for the responses again. I'm sure I will have many more questions...

Hey, liverpoolfan, our tastes sound very similar. My DH and I love the soft, warm, matte finishes and aren't really wowed by shiny granite at all personally. The big difference is that we're planning to stay in this house forever so we aren't putting resale so far up on our list of concerns.

We initially picked Honed Absolute Black until I brought a sample home and lived with it for a few days. it failed that test miserably, etching and looking ugly. A friend who has it says she just cleans it all the time, multiple times a day, too keep it looking good. (fine for some; a big "no thanks" from me :)

My kitchen will have cherry shaker cabs, fyi, probably with soapstone. We keep worrying, too, about the kitchen being too dark, but my KD has assured me that if I light the space well it won't feel too dark.

Anyway, back to your counter decision...have you looked at antiqued granite finish? I don't know all the lingo so maybe there are various types but I saw one that I really liked at a stoneyard and they called it antiqued. There was another that I personally *hated*, it was a very bumpy texture and looked plastic, and I can't remember what it was called.

Good luck, Anita