You might want to look at the Technivorm products. They are one of only two coffee brewers that are approved by the European Coffee Centre. I purchased one several months ago, because to me, the way it worked made perfect sense and it works exactly as advertised. The main thing though is to get a good burr grinder if you don't have one already. That makes more difference than the brewer itself. If you go to YouTube and type in Moccamaster or Technivorm there is plenty of info. I especially like the ones from a coffee shop in Seattle. E mail me if I can help.

With a mitered edge, the line tends to be hidden on the corner transition. Some of the quartzites are pretty expensive so the 3 cm might cost significantly more (though the fabricator will charge something for the labor of making a laminated edge and probably even more for a mitered edge so that offsets the extra cost of 3 cm unless you go for a 2 cm edge). Our quartzite is laminated, not mitered and the fabricator did a good job so I mostly don't notice the line. Only when I look for it. You don't need to do a laminated edge even if there is plywood under it. Two friends of mine did a 2 cm thin edge. One used a simple trim molding of wood matched to the cabinets to cover the edge of the plywood. The other left the plywood edge uncovered - I know because I put my head under the counter and looked into the shadow for it. If I was doing it, I'd probably cover with a trim piece because it would bother me, but only someone very TKO who looks for it would notice if you didn't.

"I have also been told that 2 cm is rarely used here anymore." and ..."oh, those over there are just 2 cm so don't bother looking at them." Not really. 2 cm is pretty much the standard on the west coast. I live in the very northern part of San Diego County and have been looking at granite for about 8 months. It turns out we live in Granite Yard City; there are at least 6 granite yards within 5 miles of my house and another 8 or so just 30 min. down the road towards San Diego. Lucky us, the closer ones seems to have a better selection. In any case, about 95% of what we've seen has been 2cm. The place I linked above is absolutely the exception in offering only 3 cm. In the end, our choice was made because we liked this outfit's work, not the thickness of the stone. There are benefits to each choice, but personally, I could readily go either way. I did see a 2 cm quartzite I loved, but it was pricey (!) and we would have needed 2 slabs to be sure there was enough to cut for the extra thickness on the edge. sigh The place we went with charges per square foot and they keep the leftovers. Had the quartzite people offered that, we would have seriously considered it. 2 cm or 3? Don't worry about it, just find one you like.

I just gave up...... After having a Gardenweb account since forever, since back when it was an offshoot of the "Parent Soup" channel thing at AOL.back in the mid-late 1990's and was still doing the same thing at the various changes and new corporate whatevers and never had an issue before or after changing my email address to Gmail in April 2004. I finally just entered a new account name at the same exact email address I have maintained since April 2004 and seemingly have either no "old" account or the new account has no conflict with the old. The old just not being able to "sign in". I have been doing this sort of thing since 1990 before even AOL back when "online" was a BBS running off of a hot rod 2400 Baud modem plug in card on an Apple IIE. I have never been one tobe concerned with site appearances, but the Huuzz scheme fonts colors layout everything, is absolutely horrendous. Just my $.02 worth..... YMMV