We have rugged canyon and it looks great. I've heard good things about mastic. Good luck, hope you love it!

I have Carrera in my upstairs bath. It is breathtakingly beautiful and so soft looking. It makes me sigh when I look at it as it just surprises me how beautiful it is. However, I must say that I do worry about it. I am not one of the easy going types who could live with etching. The reason is because it is just so beautiful it would be like the young Brad Pitt with acne. It would be a shame, a tragedy!!! I know I could never live with that in the kitchen. As much as I drool over it I would have a cow if it didn't always look as it did on day one. Call me shallow, superficial, I don't care! It's too expensive to think of it not holding up to the look it had on the first day. I have been looking at some of the white granites and find they vary so much. I love some of the Bianco Romano slabs but others are just plain and unexciting and so nothing for me. If you could find the right slabs it would be a contender. I don't mind the yellow in them, it's the ones that don't have any veins or character and are just speckles that I don't like. I am having to replace my kitchen granite since we had a sink failure and also the granite I have is all pitted and chunks of quartz or mica whatever are falling out. The guy who sold it to me is out of business and the fabricator who agrees it has "issues" and probably was not resined and has too many cracks and pits has offered to give me a great deal on replacement which turns out not to be so great, it's still in the $4K range, but it would be closer to 6K if full price. I'm sick about it. But that is why I am still in the market for granite. For some reason I have had such bad luck with everything we have done in our reno. I am not happy with any of it. I should have used a KD and not tried to do this on my own. But back to slabs, it's hard to not love the quartzite and marble but I just know I couldn't live with it and not obsess. I admire those of you who can!

Thanks for the "Read me" link, that really gave me some great advice! OK, so let me ask you guys this. I did a quick measure job last night of my countertops just to try to get a very rough estimate of what this would cost. The way our kitchen is set up is we have a long counter where the sink is, and above that is a bar top. Then on another wall, we have a counter where the stove is. So when measuring, I include my sink, but NOT the stove, correct? So really I'm looking at 3 sperate areas here (bar top, sink counter, and stove counter) that total about 53 SF (includes back splash and edges). So if I figure $60 for granite (installation included) (and I know thats the low end), i end up around $3,180. I know I'd have to add a little extra for edge finishes. To me, this doesn't seem so bad! Am I missing something here? Am I WAY off base with the $60 for granite & installation? What else do I need to include that would make a big difference in price? Thanks for all the help!

Parsondiy = You could use as many grits above 6000 as you want, and it wont help you "pop" the shine...... I have polishing compounds that go from 4000 up to 14,000 , but unless you "work" the stone at the lower grits like I said in my earlier post = you will be wasting your time and effort. I do this for a living, so I know that of which I speak..... the primary grits that we use on Granite are as follows: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 and Buff. Unless you spend adequate time at the lower grits like 100, 200 & 400 - you can go up to 28,000 grit or higher - and you still won't get your shine to "pop". If you are a DIY'er - I'd strongly suggest taking your piece to a professional fabricator that knows how to get the polish to "pop" and specializes in surface polishing - otherwise, you will not find a solution to your problem - especially here asking other people that don't do granite fabrication for a living, but maybe have it in their own kitchens and now consider themselves an "expert" on the subject. Sorry if I'm ruffling some egos with what I just said, but look at it this way - I've had two or three root canals in my lifetime - but that does NOT qualify me as being an expert in the matter, and certainly, I'm not going to tell people how to do them........ Asking other DIY folks how to solve a problem - specifically like this - is like sitting in a doctor's office and relying on all of the other patients in the waiting room (that are all waiting to see the same doctor) to diagnose, treat and cure your issue.... you need to talk directly with a doctor = does that make sense??? Like I said before - go back down to 100 grit and spend more time at each level. Use clean water and completely wipe down the work in between each grit level. Use a squeege to get off ALL of the particulate that you generate with each grit step )it'll look like a milky solution comming off of the pad as you polish). use a variable speed grinder with lots of water, and keep your RPM speed as low as you can without having the polisher stall on you. use a rigid baker pad and a really good set of pads....... I teach new fabricators how to do this so they can make a living at it....... thus endeth the lesson hth kevin