Kitchen Remodel - Oh The Wonderful World Of Countertops

This week it's all about counter tops! The mind numbing, detail-filled, contradictory world of quartz, laminate, butcher's block, porcelain, granite, marble we've looked at them all until our eyes were bleeding. Please no more!

So for your sanity and ours, after all, we have to do something with our self-taught knowledge of the counter top world we'll share a condensed version of our crash course over the last 6 months. Ready? Neither are we. But before I hide in the pantry and eat the last of the potato chips let me tell you what we've learned.

Marble - we quickly ruled this option out due to the fact that it is such high maintenance. It's not a practical choice if you like to actually cook in your kitchen. It "mars" if you spill oil or high-acid foods such as tomatoes, lemons, coffee you get the idea. Who has time for that?

Granite - Beautiful and they have lots of marble like options but it needs to be sealed regularly to protect it

Quartz -  Quartz is less maintenance in the long run and does not need sealing.  

Laminate - The cheaper option if we were to get it precut at Lowes or Home Depot but if we delve into the "Order Me" kinds. It is not really all that much cheaper. Funny, but this is where Mr. Cottage drew the line in the proverbial sand and said that someone else is installing this and not me so that ruled out the off the shelf variety and had us searching elsewhere for our countertops.

Porcelain - Porcelain is not just the little tiles anymore, they grew up! They now make it in great big sheets. It is supposed to be stronger than the other options, stain resistance and heat resistance is higher than the others but the options for installation were few and far between and the cost was the highest. 

Butchers Block - Beautiful and imperfections and stains can be lightly sanded out as needed. It is not heat resistant and needs to be sealed or oiled regularly. 

We're currently planning on using quartz in the color of "White Lace", we fell in love with the white color with flakes of sparkle. This week we have a company coming in to measure the kitchen for the granite and give us a quote. We bought a piece of butcher's block to finish off our island, and I have to say we love the way it looks!

We are kind of running out of time to get all of this done before Mr. Cottage heads for Germany for three months- which will leave us girls to finish. He's brave, isn't he? He leaves us for a day and we launch a full-scale kitchen remodel, what trouble could we get into in three months?

Oh Pinterest, Craigslist...