Great blog about marble countertops. Must read.
chloenkitty
9 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
9 years agopeony4
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Marble for some countertops--marble owners would you do it again?
Comments (51)I know this is an old thread. But I know I read old threads when I am trying to make a decision. We put soapstone and marble and wood floors in our kitchen in 2007. So we are going on 8.5 years and I LOVE IT ALL. My kids have grown up with it. We don't baby any surface. To be clear, my style is not slick and modern. I have antiques and an older home so I like traditional materials and I don't mind a "lived with patina"-but having said that I don't think my stone has much of a patina at all. The big island is soapstone. It has a few scratches-mostly from house-sitters and the kids dragging heavy pots across it or cutting directly on it like a cutting board.. But if I oil it (which I do maybe 2-3 times a year) they fade. I did search for a long time and I picked a soapstone that was know to be harder than others with minimal white veining-so this could make a difference. I think we could have the top polished/honed again and it would look brand new. But I think it looks fine. Maybe in another 8 or 9 years. I love it everyday! The carrara marble is around the sink in the most used food prep area of the kitchen. It is honed. I just had a repair company come out (only because we had to do some other work in the kitchen and hubby asked about it) and they honed it again and cleaned it up. It looks brand new (I didn't think it looked bad before). There are a few little pits and chips that cant be fixed-but I don't think they are that noticeable. I just sealed it after the guy left. It was never really sealed before. I have gotten a few stains and I have always gotten them out. I have had etching but I learned how to get that out myself (I use sandpaper-yes and it has worked beautifully for me). I love it every day! We are about to ignore all practical advice again and put marble in our master bathroom. I hope we have as much luck with it as we did in the kitchen. In the next few weeks I hope to post photos of our 8.5 year old finishes....See MoreMust Read Kitchen Threads for Newbie?
Comments (2)I think the sink decision, and everything sink-related (shape, material, size, faucet, drain placement, where to buy), surprises people as to its complexity and number of decisions needed. I'll link a couple of threads for sink and faucet decisions, but I also recommend you do a search on this forum in the search box at the bottom for terms like "D-shape or rectangular sink", "offset drain", "corner sink", "apron front sink", "ordering sink online", and anything else sink related. Thread educating about pull-out vs. pull-down faucets Thread about stainless steel or silgranit sinks Double vs. Single Bowl Sinks Thread about size and shape of sink...See MoreWorried about marble's durability in the kitchen? Read my tale!
Comments (10)I can remember back when I'd begun to look for slabs, very early on in the process. I always knew I wanted Carrara marble, not granite or any other surface. I knew this years before we ever even contemplated a new kitchen. But, without exception, every sales person in every slab yard strongly discouraged me from using marble for a counter surface in the kitchen. And more discouragingly, most of them wanted me to sign waivers. At that time I didn't have any "facts" or real life experience about living with marble in the kitchen. I was so confused -- how could a natural material that has been used in homes for centuries be such a poor choice today? Even after I'd found GardenWeb and read the experiences of those who already had marble in their kitchens, the people at the slab yards were still skeptical. I'm so grateful I didn't let their ignorance of the stone's qualities deter me. I will admit, however, to a strong measure of paranoia for the first couple of months after the Carrara was installed. But once I had a chance to see that staining was a non-issue and that etch marks were best seen by my eyes only -- not my family's eyes, and certainly not my guests' eyes (I'd practically have to tilt their heads with one hand and point to the etch with another!) -- once I saw that this aged stone of Renaissance masters could hold its own in the 21st Century in my little kitchen, I was gratified with my leap of faith. Erika, the last time I sealed was a bit less than a year ago. Installers sealed it, and I resealed (too enthusiastically, and with so much sealer that I had to remove all the gumminess of my work and re-seal again). Yesterday's baking prep was done at my 8' island. Lots of room to spread out. It was so wonderful to have a seemingly endless stretch of marble surface to roll out my dough and to cool my cookies. I made Linzer tarts and there were plenty of of raspberry and pomegranite jelly spills as I worked on filling the cookies. No stains, easy clean up, great looking cookies....See MoreYet another 'must read' list
Comments (16)Pages, thanks for posting the entire list. Much easier to navigate. I've only read, roughly, 135 of the 1000. Roughly because, frankly, my memory isn't great on some. Several have been read because of the recommendations on this forum. How do we count those we began but couldn't abide and gave up? I didn't count Proust because I only read 20 pages before the hate overwhelmed me. But what if I got half-way through before giving up? In a few cases I thought I'd read all of a writer's oeuvre, but didn't remember the novel listed. I think I read all of Agatha Christie, but I don't remember some of the titles. Also, I noticed that titles were sometimes slightly different from the book I read -- Smilla's Sense of Snow vs. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow . I'm insulted that publishers pigeonhole us, then remember our discussion about "around" and "round" on the other thread. I guess the publishers do know what they are doing when they change titles to accomodate the market. James Lee Burke is on the list, much to my delight. How silly that I take personally the ranking of a favorite author....See MoreJoseph Corlett, LLC
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