I'm on the tomato forum and have seen so many answers to my google questions here, so figured I'd just go to the source of the good answers;-)

First question:

I am going to be stripping/ refinishing our kitchen cabinets(have no fear-I have thus far done 3 bathrooms, hall linen area and our stair rails-I have the process down to a science!)and getting new counter tops.

Currently I have a 4 burner 30 inch gas cooktop. Since I am getting new counter tops, will I be able to reframe the counters below to house a bigger cook top, or do the cabinets basically dictate how big I can go and tough-stuck with a 30" unless I want to shell out for new cabinets? Or does it vary by cabinets and I'll just have to wait and see until we bust out the old cooktop?

2nd question:

Does anyone have pics of dark cabinets with a dark granite counter top? I LOVE dark granites with tons of movement, but I'm thinking to showcase the counters with the dark cabinets, I'll have to go lighter on the counters. Thoughts, opinions, tales of regret?

3rd Question:

Sinks-I see silgranit is a fav here. What are the pros vs cons for silgranit vs a stainless steel sink? I've tried reading the pros and cons on both on several sites, bout would like some been there, done that comparison from people who have perhaps had both. I have 2 kids, pets and I'm pretty hard on sinks. We currently have a 1980's white one-no clue the material, but I call it my toilet in my kitchen. It gets metal scrapes on it from cookie sheets and pots and coffee/tea over the past few years has stained it quite badly, even after using ajax on it.