A good friend of ours has done many concrete countertops and they look amazing. We seriously considered it for our remodel. The staining/etching is what turned us off. To be perfectly frank I'm a slob in the kitchen. A countertop that would be damaged by red wine or lemon left on it overnight is just not feasible. Instead we went with soapstone. If it can hold up to legions of teenage chemistry students I feel it can hold up to me. :D If you do decide to go with concrete have you seen the books by Fu-Tung Cheng? They're excellent. Soapstone can be a lot more affordable as a DIY project. The quarry we bought from has DIY kits for about $25/sq ft or you could make it even cheaper by using tiles. Soapstone seams incredibly well.

We've only had our Cambria quartz counter top for about 1 month and I LOVE it!! I did want more of a shine but find it is not very shiney at all : ( But is sounds like more prefer the less shinier type. Around here the popular ones are Oxford, Nottingham and Victoria from what the dealer told me. I like them too and thought that one of those would be my choice but ended up choosing the new Cranbrook Quarry series just because it went better with the cabinets. Preston and Brownhill were also very nice. I was able to take the small 4"x4" sample home for a few days to decide. I can barely see the seem and love how it cleans. Haven't put anything REALLY hot on it, like a slow cooker, and probably won't just because I'm scared to LOL. Here are some pics.......total cost $5700 (install & tax)

I would advise you avoid doing business with AZ tile and Dean Jessup specifically. We had a horrible experience with them. Don't expect them to act with integrity or stand behind their product. We used a fabricator that was a personal referral from him. When we had discoloration and fingerprints that wouldn't come off of our Della Terra quartz he informed me I must have "scarred" it by cleaning with a paper towel. ( I called him within an hour of the fabricator leaving). We paid beyond stone to buff it with a cleaner at their recommendation. It mostly resolved the issue although as a result of the buffing the gloss and sheen no longer match our perimeter counters. Best we can figure out the fabricator applied turtle wax or something similar to disguise striations around the sink cutout. Which is why fingerprints couldn't be cleaned off. We still have some smudges. Bottom line rather than try to help us resolve the issue he was hostile and accusatory. He said the fabricator (a friend of his apparently) said it was fine so we must have done something. Do business with them at your own risk.

There can be two reasons you're not receiving the emails: You didn't check the "Check here if you would like copies of follow-ups to your message emailed to you." box when you created/started the post You don't have the email option turned on in your profile. To turn the email option on: Go to "Your Profile" (see top of page, above GardenWeb banner) You will have to log in again Check to be sure the email address entered is the correct one Scroll down to bottom to shaded area. Check the box that says...Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site. Click the "Save Your Member Profile" button You're done! I don't know if it's retroactive for current posts, but all future posts should have replies emailed to you....assuming you checked the "Check here if you would like copies of follow-ups to your message emailed to you." box when you create a new post.