We have corian in the kitchen and got silestone (engineered quartz) for the bathrooms. We wanted the softness of corian wrt clumsiness with dishes/glass, but corian in the bathroom was too expensive for my taste. We found silestone remnants and I'm very happy with them. Either one is pretty bulletproof; silestone will resist scratches better than corian, and as they say can be cleaned with pretty much anything. Silestone is harder to repair if it does chip out, though, which is a consideration. Granite is good too, but for take-abuse-without-much-babying/sealing/get-the-stain-at-the-moment kind of living, I'd look at engineered quartz and corian. Marble (real marble) is a world away from that; it's beautiful and honed, feels delicious, but it ages with use ("patina") and you would have to be o.k. with that. Another thing to consider is counter-depth porcelain tile...*if you don't have vast expanses of open counter* (nothing more than, say 24" at a time), you could have the *effect* of slab, since there would be no groutlines, and porcelain is as tough as you could ever hope for in a counter. Look at --ach! I'm blanking! I forgot a friend's name today--OH, got it: Crossville. Look at them for counter-depth tile.

I'm currently painting my parents' upstairs bath remodel - 2 coats of Kilz Original primer, Behr flat white ceiling paint and (hopefully 2 coats, have to see if enough) SW matte latex wall paint (looks eggshell in downstairs hall). It's a very small room with only 7'3" ceiling at the shower end, tapering down to 5ft over vanity/toilet. I am putting 2nd (and maybe 3rd) coat of Kilz over the new greenboard walls today, and painting the ceiling - walls might end up being put off until tomorrow if not enough time/daylight. Contractor is installing floor, vanity, mirror, and hopefully sconces on Tuesday, plumber putting in toilet and shower head on Wed. Bathroom will be used Dec 23 or 24th when my sister comes for a week. Not a great vent fan (40+ yrs old and dusty though I tried to vacuum it out). Since it's off the bedroom and not hallway, best to just tell her to leave the door open when showering? There is a window in the bedroom right outside the bathroom (tucked into corner) - not sure if she should open that though if cold outside, would make condensation on that wall (where shower is too) worse - plus be cold on person stepping out of shower! My dad apparently has never used the vent fan in the 15 yrs that he has been sleeping up there, but he gets wet, shuts off the water, soaps up, and rinses off so water runs about 2 minutes when he takes a shower. I would expect that with a nice acrylic 42" shower in place of dark mildewed tiled 36" shower my sister and BIL will be taking longer showers! This post was edited by ajsmama on Sun, Dec 14, 14 at 7:58

<i>With Houzz, do you notice a lot of 'empty' responses? Not a link, not a model number, not a manufacturer - but rather 'I think' or 'I've seen'. Just fills the site with clutter.</i> I am certain this is directed at me and I feel like I need to defend myself. If I have not used or seen a product then I will not recommend it. However, it is possible that the OP did not know that sensor switches existed. If the OP feels that this is something they might want to look into, they have access to the internet and can google "automatic switch that senses humidity" as easily as any of the rest of us. And they can decide which one is appropriate for their particular situation. If you don't like it, you can take your snark elsewhere.

Jeffrey, if I go the route of granite I would definitely be choosing from the remnants for this reason. The undermount crud is what I would want to avoid. Porcelain does look intriguing to me for the children's bathrooms. I have found this online and at the big box stores. Is this a material that my local shop would have access to or is big box the way to go? For reference, I requested pricing for a 48" vanity top. Corian was $1463.68. Synthetic Marble $345.15 and a granite remnant that I chose for pricing purposes only was $650. This does not include installation. I was a little taken about at the Corian pricing. Is this in line? Let me know if so and I will take some time to accept it (0r not). I appreciate everyone's help!