Cevemal; An appreciable fraction of natural stones have matting and resin on the backside of the stone to reduce the risk of cracks during shipment. Additionally, there are a number of natural stones that, when polished, have miniscule surface depressions too small to feel with a fingertip but visible when the lighting and viewing angle are correct. To make the stones more attractive to the market a process was developed where a VERY thin layer (.060") of resin is impregnated into the top surface of the unpolished slab using heat and vacuum. When the slab is then polished the surface irregularities are filled by the resin so the stone has the preferred glassy smooth finish. This process has the additional advantage of making typical sealing of natural stone unnecessary since the pores in the stone are filled by the resin. Regarding solid surface vs. natural vs. engineered stone all are good looking and durable countertop materials. Make sure you understand the different material properties and then pick the look you want with material properties appropriate for your application.

MizLizzie, It is very nice of you to share the issue with Cambria since we are thinking about using man-made hard surface for kitchen counter in the upcoming kitchen remodel. The incompetent fabricator messed up counter top edge and sink cut out in our hall bath. I have no confidence in him of redoing the counter top, I worry if he would make things worse by damaging connected backsplash, cabinet, faucet and sink. It has been two months; the poor work still bothers me so I know I would never be able to accept it. We too have demanding jobs and frequent business travels. We are trying to find the best time slot for the rework. Congratulations for your childâÂÂs college graduation. Ours finished his graduate school last May. After the ceremony, we parents congratulated one another and jokingly shared the tips of calculating pay back rate for the bailout loans we provided. It was a lot of fun. This post was edited by azmom on Thu, Jul 4, 13 at 12:31

Mayflowers, thank you so very much for taking the time to give me you insight! I've read the paint discussion thread, however, I will need to reread it several times before I can "get it". A lot of it flew so high over my head that I felt dizzy, lol. You are dead on in some of your comments. I would absolutely LOVE to get new granite, but if I even look like I'm about to suggest it, I'd be dead on the spot from the daggers shooting from my husband's eyes!! You have to understand that when he finally agreed to getting granite in the first place, it was like winning the lottery for me!! We are by no means wealthy people, and we way over shot our budget! My husband is, not what you would call a tight-wad, but is very very conservative with money. He does, though, love a "good deal" and will buy 3-4 of something that is on sale whether we need it or not. Drives me nuts. It's killing him to paint the cabinets because we paid so much for them and he tells every paint/tile sales people so..."We paid a lot of money to get natural maple, now she wants to PAINT them"..."coulda save a lot of money", I really do understand where he's coming from, the remodel was supposed to be our last hurrah. I'm sorry for the rant, just needed a little venting because this whole thing is becoming so stressful. I guess I'll get some MORE paint samples. I've only been looking at paint from Lowe's, Home Depot and Kelly Moore. Haven't seen much discussion of their paint colors, seems like everyone is on the BM banwagon. I just figured that their's was too expensive. I've heard people say that they have a place like Home Depot mix up BM paint for them (?) how do they do that? Just take a paint chip/strip of BM and ask for that color? Can you do that with any brand? Once again, thank you for your help.

You'll just have to see how the calacatta looks with it. I have a carrara mini-brick sample and I thought it looked too white with the torquay. I was planning for torquay on the island and carrara on the backsplash, and I wonder if any of the marbles would look good if they are right up next to each torquay. I think the key might be to use a mosaic with small enough tiles that you aren't seeing the marble veining. You'll just have to try different tiles and see if any work. I'll post a link to the website with the irregular one - that's one of my favorites, too. I also really like the 2"x12" field tile with silver medley gemstones in the last picture. Those are Jeffrey Court tiles, and if you go to their website you might find something you love. They are expensive, but if you have a small space it isn't so bad. Here is a link that might be useful: Calacatta marble tile