Honestly, I think you're a great candidate for a higher-end laminate. Yes, the top layer of your counter will be petroleum products, but underneath is bio-degradable wood. You may be able to specify that the wood be sustainably-forested as well.

Meanwhile, at the price differential that you mention (60% upcharge from laminate), the granite will probably be quarried from China, with Chinese-grade environmental and labor standards. Granite is not recyclable or renewable, and if it's sealed, the sealer may be petroleum-based. I don't think it's more "green" than laminate.

I did it with marble counters last year and it worked out well. We painted the cabinets, changed appliances and put in marble. There's a link on the current marble thread that shows what was done. No worries.

Here is a link that might be useful: marble on old cabinets

We put granite on our 32 yr. old cabinets. My husband said they were still in great shape-almost all wood-and we really weren't impressed with some cabinets we looked at in kitchen design showrooms as well as big box stores like Lowes. It depends on the condition of your cabinets. If you do decide to put granite on top of them, you must make sure the cabinets are level-that's very important. My husband also built some cross braces for the tops of the cabinets as a reinforcement measure. I'll see if I have any pics of what he did.

Since you say you will only be in this house another 5 yrs. or so, perhaps consider a lower priced granite. There are some beautiful lower priced granites.

Here's a pic to show what my husband did to add some reinforcement to the cabinets. He said it wasn't necessary but it was easy to do.

Thanks for all the replies--and please keep them coming! I especially appreciate chris45's picture of the added supports. Her cabinets look pretty similar to mine (although hers may be a bit darker). The granite company I'm likely to use if I do go with granite says they'll add any needed support (at an extra cost, of course), although it's definitely a concern that my cabinets may not be level. I think I will go look at laminates at the big-box stores before deciding. It's hard to get much of an idea from the pictures on the Wilsonart and Formica websites. Geargirly makes a good point that laminates that try to look like granite may look worse than those that are honest about being laminates :-). The only countertop in my kitchen that's chipped and corroded is the one by the sink, so I even thought about getting a straight run of new laminate that would go with my existing laminate but unless I get plain white, nothing's going to go with the old "white with green flecks" pattern. It's hard to decide what to do, but looking at laminates may help me decide. marilano

The new countertops will give the room a very different and happy feeling.

For what it's worth...
Are you considering green laminates? Greens seem problematical. The green choices in the laminates were not as successful for my schemes as some of the other palettes, although if you're working with the "avocado" direction you're not in quite the same bind as those of us with a bent toward Granny Smith or celery. My point: don't rule out other colors and schemes. (And don't make the mistake of compromising with DH on a good dark green and then noticing that it's the ubiquitous standard countertop in your local Menard's home improvement store. What a bad moment to notice something I usually don't even see!)

on another tack...I live in a metropolitan area and yet even here it was hard to find a vendor display that included all the laminate lines. I found one in a very comprehensive flooring store in a small town suburb and another fab display in a commercial cookware outlet, intended for restaurant rehabs. Once I'd looked at these places, I knew I'd really seen the spectrum of options.

I agree that you should go with a nice laminate. Save your money. And don't worry about the next homeowners. they may love it the way it is or rip your townhouse down to the studs. You just never know.

We had to do an immediate replacement of the counter-tops when we moved into our house a few years ago because they were in such a bad state of repair (we are just now finally getting around to the actual remodel, maybe, lol).

We found a granite remnant for the island but went with laminate for the perimeter. We found pre-made counters on sale at a local home improvement store for under $200 for the whole kitchen! Yes, the laminate is a granite-look one, but we found that we got as many compliments from our friends on the laminate counters as on our granite. I certainly like it.

I also ordered a laminate from Wilsonart's Indie line to go on a table in my office/sewing room. You can find pictures of the Indie laminates under the Designer section of Wilsonart's website. There are some really fun designs in that collection if you decide you want to go for something a little different.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilsonart Indie Collection

We put granite slab on old cabinets that we painted. No problems with doing so. I am happy with that decision and love it every day. You can always look at it from that standpoint, that you will get so much enjoyment and use out of them for the next 5-7 years.

My sister put some sort of solid surface counter, Corian-like, on her old oak (!) cabinets, and with cleaning and new hardware and backsplash, they look great.

marilano-

Here's a pic showing the new granite on the old, refurbished oak cabinets. DH cleaned them with Dirtex, sanded them, stained them provincial which is a medium/dark color, and then did a coat of varnish I think to seal them. We also added new hardware. The new granite has been on the old cabs for about 10 months now with no problems at all. Like I said-if your cabinets are in good shape you can make them work.

You may find that the big-box stores stock mostly chips of the faux-stone. You may also be able to find a kitchen show room with a wider variety of samples. You can also order free color chips on line at both Formica and Wilsonart.