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.

mjsee, it appears you just can't let go of that color - isn't that a salmon colored sweater you are wearing in your beautiful gray bathroom? Salmon does flatter all skin tones. Your gray bathroom is really lovely. I guess my biggest regret, here at my everyday house, is caving in and not insisting on enlarging the shower stall in the MB. The stupid tile guy said, in front of DH: "oh, that would be expensive to change."!! Idiot - it would be more $$ for him but I guess he wasn't interested in the job. For my own use the shower stall is fine but it would be nice a smidgen larger. In our 2nd home I wish I wouldn't have picked that particular window tmt on the LR slider wall. I love all the other WT so one regret isn't bad. I've never admitted this to anyone. I don't want to bring their attention to something that they wouldn't notice - or care about - until I point it out. So as far as you know, I LOVE everything about the condo. Got it?

I love the way the marble looks in my kitchen and island but want to rip it out. Life if way to short to worry about etching staining cooking having friends put their wine on the counter. I hate the upkeep and maintenance of it. I cook every night and hate worrying about a counter. I picked out a beautiful granite and when they came to take the template, the guy said are you crazy changing this beautiful kitchen. i caved in and kept them, it's two months now and I hate having them more each day. Will wait until Christmas and they are gone, found a beautiful white granite. The fabricator said . don't do it, I was warned and hard headed and now it will cost me between 4-5000 to replace it. Crazy me

The floor still looks great and cleans easily. The only imperfections are seen only in certain light and that is some pressure marks from the dogs before we got the claws trimmed. The finish isn't scratched, it's just from pressure on the wood. Had we not planned on the cork, I think we would have gone with a similar finish in a harder wood (this is maple -- the softest but DH loved it). The dogs are nearly 50 and 60 lbs and very high energy. We never had to trim their nails before, probably should have before the floors were done or right after, but we got busy and I still don't like it. They both have black nails so you can't see what is safe to trim. I took them to the vet so I wouldn't hurt them and the vet even got one of them. We are going to try filing now, but we know the floor's finish is really tough. I love the character in the wood, and you see that all the time, no matter what the light. It really is a beautiful floor.