Autumn re-runs: Reader questions --Thorny dilemmas on stony subjects
I love it when people write to me with questions. Really. Back in the old days, it happened so infrequently that I made a blog post out of nearly every one. I don't have the room for that any more but I do reserve the right to make a post out of any question I can answer that makes me look clever of funny. Preferably both. My personal responses are always a lot kinder than what ends up in the blog, I promise. Also, I will always disguise the identity of a someone who asks me something. Here are some from last year. This post ran originally on 4 October 2009 .
Help! We're getting our new granite on Monday hopefully and I'm certain they will tell us the way to smooth??....However become thinking how you smooth your granite. I certain don't need to harm it.
Thanks in advance.Hey, thanks for your question and congrats on your new addition. Granite is exceptionally easy to live with, despite the nonsense you may see and hear about it. You don't need any special cleaners for it, really. The easiest way to keep it looking good is to clean it with soap and water, rinse it and then dry it. You don't need to scrub it, treat it, buy special cleaners or give it any kind of kid glove treatment. Your fabricator will sell you on an annual resealing package and that's fine if it will give you peace of mind. However, in ten years of dealing with granite counters, I have never once seen anyone stain it or wear down the seal that's already on it when it's installed. The only way you can damage that counter is if you do it on purpose with a hammer. I'm sure there are anecdotes out there about so-and-so's neighbor's cousin's sister-in-law reading something on the internet about some nightmare stained granite incident, but I've never come across one first hand.
Help! My hairdresser told me yesterday about veneer granite transforming her daughter's kitchen... do you know anything about it? cost? installation?
Those granite and composite veneer overlay counters are generally supplied by an outfit called Granite Transformations. Granite Transformations is an international franchise that employs some of the most heavy-handed and shrill sales tactics I've ever come across. That alone makes me wonder about them. Even if the finished product didn't look cheesy (and this finished product looks cheesy), I question anybody whose marketing message consists of slamming their competitors rather than extolling their own benefits. Their latest tactic seems to be touting their "green" credentials. I may be alone in this, but to me that's another red flag. In a world where polyethylene grocery bags and Mylar juice boxes are somehow green, I'd say that's a meaningless descriptor. Proceed with caution. My advice? Go to a reputable counter fabricator that sells a number of materials and see what they can do with your budget.
Help! I can't select up a home or kitchen magazine with out seeing white marble counters. Yet for our whole kitchen upkeep, I've gotten total NO! Gasps after I percentage we want marble at the island. Folks inform me Marble is for individuals who don't prepare dinner.
We need an advanced library appearance -the shelves are mahogany with Jacobean stain, cabinets to the ceiling with white crown molding and we would love white marble counters.
Do you have experience with white marble counters? The kitchen is 30x15 so the investment is great and I don't want to buy something that cannot withstand children, entertaining and years.Have you never read my blog before? White marble counters (honed please) are my all-time favorite material, to hell with its detractors. Click on the word countertops in my glossary to the right and you'll be treated to 45 articles I've written on counters. About half of them are devoted to singing songs of praise to white marble. your kitchen sounds beautiful, send me a photo when it's done.
Marble is not high maintenance, but marble is also impossible to to keep looking pristine. If you have an obsessive personality, marble is not your material. Find a white quartzite instead. It will keep a glossy shine and repel damage almost as well as granite will. But if you like the idea of your life leaving a mark on things, then marble is for you. Trust me, white marble will scratch and stain and get more and more beautiful with each passing year. It's marble's nature and there's nothing you can do to counteract it completely.
Just approximately every horizontal surface in Southern Europe, indoors and out, is made from white marble. Most of it is masses of years vintage. It appears wonderful and is however one of the many approaches that the human beings of Southern Europe get tied to their surroundings. Think approximately it. If 5 generations of your circle of relatives lived in the same home and the matriarch of every era chopped greens inside the identical spot at the same marble counter, each of those girls left a physical mark on that counter. Every time you walked into that kitchen and checked out that counter, you will have an immediate reminder of the ladies who proceeded you to that spot. Wow. Far from detracting from the splendor of the floor, that form of history and character is the last enhancement. Having white marble in your private home is an possibility to capture some of that history and person for your self and to your family.
You keep listening to an emphatic NO! Because you haven't spoken with me. I say go for it!
Help! I?M sitting right here crying because I?Ve looked at so much granite that I want to give up. I?M trying to brighten my kitchen up so I put in Biscotti coloured shelves (already set up 3 weeks ago) to go together with a new countertop and floors (looking ahead to granite color before picking tile shade). I actually have in particular white home equipment. New variety top is black and the pinnacle segment of the dishwasher is black. Other than that it?S all white. My small home equipment are black. (Toaster, espresso pot, can opener.) The wall color can be changed to something. My dining room desk and chairs are light oak.
I?Ve run the gamut from light to medium to dark granite and now I?M lower back to light. I?M ready to surrender completely and positioned the vintage countertop lower back in which changed into timber block.
Hey, chin up. You're fortunate to have a life where you have choices. Having too many choices is a symptom of a life of plenty and certainly nothing to shed tears over. Too many choices can also be intimidating and overwhelming and it sounds like your stuck on overwhelmed. I have no idea what the color "Biscotti" is without knowing who the manufacturer was and I'm not even going to try to make a recommendation. What I do recommend strongly though is that you find the most reputable granite fabricator in your area and give them a call. Please note that this will not be in a big box store. Set an appointment and then take one of your cabinet doors over to the fabricator and look at granite slabs in their yard. You cannot pick a granite counter from small samples. Run away from anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.
I would never turn someone loose with all the options available, it's too much to process. Instead, I do pre-selections for my clients. I talk to them, find out where their interests are and then show them three options rather than 150. If they don't like any of the first set of three, then I show them a second set of three and sometimes a third set.
You want someone to do some thing just like that for you in a granite backyard. Talk to a shop clerk earlier than you cross look at slabs. Tell her or him the primary colorings you're inquisitive about after which be honest approximately your finances. Let the salesclerk manual you thru their slab room. A reputable fabricator will have an amazing cross section of what's to be had, so pick some thing from what you notice that day. Just breathe and realize that based totally for your finances and the alternative colorings you're the usage of to your maintenance, the right granite will come to be choosing you. So get out of the way and let it.