I fell in love with cararra marble, and decided to take the plunge in our new home. A big decision for me was honed vs. polished. I agonized over this! The stone yard seemed to be steering me toward polished, citing that the polishing process protected the stone better. Most of the homes around here that have marble have polished, and the ones I saw were in kitchens. The two homes I visited had polished marble in the kitchen, and the homeowners showed me the considerable etching. Made me quite nervous, and intuitively I thought that honed marble might not show the etching as much. My interior designer thought honed would look better with my kitchen, so I bit the bullet and went with honed in the kitchen and butler's pantry, and polished on our master bath vanity. Dh was NOT excited about me choosing a finish he would have to be careful with. We also have an 11 year old son and an 8 year old daughter...neither are what I would call fastidious, slovenly is more like it!

A month in, here are my impressions. I got my first little etch on the honed the first day. *sob* Do you know what caused the etch? A small drop of water left on the counter by the sink. I won't lie, that first one hurt. But, now, they don't bother me at all. There are more, and really, on the honed finish, you can almost rub them until they just blend away. They just seem like part of the stone. I have had absolutely NO stains, even when dh left a large drop of tea on the counter overnight. He is one lucky man. :) I am not sure what sealer they used, but it seems pretty good. Here are some tips I have for daily life with my honed marble.

1. Train your children to put dishes in the sink, not the counter! Or even better, the DW. That way, if there is anything yucky on the bottom of the pllate, it won't be on your c-tops.

2. I just keep a towel nearby to dry off the top after using the sink.

3. I also keep a plastic cutting board out and handy.

I am not a messy cook, so the honed marble is working fine for me. Plus, having an island made of a different material is also helpful. Like if you wanted to can tomatoes, I would choose the other surface, lol!

The polished has been just fine in the bath. Water has been splashed and left on the marble, and no etching yet. I was really surprised after seeing the polished in my two friend's kitchens...I thought it would be a hot mess. It seems very durable so far. Still not sure if it would be ok for the kitchen, but if you like the polished look, I wouldn't hesitate to get it for worries about stains and etching.