For gawds sake avoid any sort of carbonate stone. Marble, limestone,
travertine, etc. The stuff just plain does not stand up under traffic, use,
mild abrasion or dilute acids. You can scratch it with a penny and etch it
with lemon juice, tomato juice or carbonated beverages. Chemically, it's
about the same material as an eggshell. If you want a demonstration of it's
durability, soak an egg overnight in a glass of coke. Builders and interior
designers push the stuff a lot, but it's a disaster about to happen. They
claim that "sealing" it will fix the problem. The sealer is just a coat of
polyurithane and lasts just long enough for the installer to collect his
paycheck.


"Mike Hide" wrote in message
news:qxGTa.116609$OZ2.23054@rwcrnsc54...
I am thinking of redoing our kitchen, I redid the whole thing many years
ago
and am now tired of it .

First of all there is not enough room to swing a cat in. the countertops
are
formica or at least the equivalent and I would like to repalace them with
the cheapest solid material that looks good and is the cheapest, granite,
slate ,marble whatever ,anything but corianor similar. most economic
recommendations appreciated.

Bookcases ! my wife wants a bookcase to put her cookbooks on and there
flayt
is not enough space anywhere .So here is a question for the
nurogeekwoodworkers . Is it possible to have a pulldown flatscreen, that
has
access to cookbooks on a Cd or the like that I could even load the family
cook book into ,suggstions amd directions would be appeciated ...mjh

--
mike hide
http://members.tripod.com/mikehide2