This topic couldn't be more timely! I am in the process of selling my NYC condo and buying a Loudoun County new construction home. To start with, the condo had marble baths - vanities, floors, shower tiles, wall tiles - the whole thing. I hated it! Looking back, I now know why I hated it. I hated it because I always knew that condo was not my forever home. I was always trying to keep it looking fresh and clean and pristine for "when we sell". That meant that I was always wiping up water from the vanities. If we had guests, I would take every opportunity to go into the second bathroom to wipe up whatever water was sitting on the vanity. This was a constant issue and stress for me and my poor husband who was an innocent bystander to my obsession. One day my cat peed on the bath mat on the floor and the etching in front of the tub freaked me out and I couldn't look at it without worrying about a potential buyer's complaints. One night I put my contact case on the vanity without drying it off and to this day there is an outline of a contact case on that vanity. All this being said, the first person who looked at my condo made me a full price offer with no mention of the barthroom marble! Now that we are building our dream home, I have decided to put in 150 feet of Carrara marble kitchen counters and am plotting for that day In the future when I can afford to redo the builder 4x4 ceramic tiles in the master bathroom our budget requires we get now with Carrara marble tiles and vanities. Long story short, now that I know that this is "my" house and whatever I do with it only has to please me and not some future buyer, I am doing exactly what I want. The thing is that I am a relaxed person who enjoys things that feel warm and homey and used but have an underlying elegance. Marble is perfect for me! I can't wait to have it and enjoy it and appreciate it's characteristics rather than fighting them. Marble boils down to this, if you are going to fight every mark and indication of use - DON'T GET IT it is not for you. Stick with granite or something else that will look brand new in 20 years. If you appreciate a patina and signs of use, then get it and love it.

Yes, it’s loud. I’m not saying you shouldn’t love it or that it’s hard to clean, and I, too, get many compliments. Want to know what it sounds like? Take a small plate to a showroom that has a piece and slide it across. We have the leather at our lake house and polished at home, and I like both, the leather because it’s unique, the shiny because it’s so beautiful in my newly remodeled kitchen. My mother-in-law, who is 94, comes to the lake with us and slides EVERYTHING across the leathered granite surface, and by the end of the day my nerves are frazzle.d. Just know what you’re buying and be okay with it. Both are wonderful choices, as far as I’m concerned.

Wow! I can't believe I got so many comments on this. So happy and will read through it all later today. You people ROCK! Just a quick update, we live on LI and found fabricator we like, Marbleline in Westbury. Stella is great and so helpful. Today we just found Calacatta Gold Bhorgini marble at European Marble in Farmingdale (Dubon Ct.) honed that is the slab I want (if I win the battle) they are also great there and I thought their selection was the best I've seen so far in marble, granite. They have multiple locations but when they get a lot, they split it up between locations so you don't have to trek into Brooklyn to see it all, the Melville location will have it. kerri helped me and they are so friendly and nice. We also found a granite and quartzite piece we like in case we (me) get talked out of marble. I am holding strong and preparing to present my case to DH and do my research. We took a chunk of carerra marble and taj mahal quartzite home (Stella's idea from marbleline) and we're planning to test it ourselves. I've seen photos of honed marble with etching and I'm ok with it. My tests will be with jelly, tea, wine, coffee, lemon, peanut butter, oj, grape juice, Gatorade, butter, honey, milk, cereal, ice cream (can you tell I have kids!!) and see how it turns out. On a daily basis this kind of stuff happens on my counters today so I expect this to continue...... sigh...... I just think that I love marble so much that even with the patina over time, it will still be stunning.

Can anyone recommend a silicone for around white quartzite where it meets wall that will not bleed into Calacatta Lux Quartzite? It is installed and the edges were not sealed. any help is greatly appreciate to be able to avoid these problems. We had a little silicone bleed one the one piece they sealed and acetone removed it. I want to avoid this, and ESPECIALLY these slow bleeds that take awhile to show. I want to put up tiles but not before I can test a good silicone for the edges and wait a few weeks. Thanks so so much in advance!!!! It is quartzite and passed all the tests, but when I learned hardness and porousity are two different things, it was already installed - came across this looking for maintenance and care.