You should love the granite. It's a lot of money and it needs to make you thrilled to see it and touch it every day. Can you find the money somewhere else in your budget?

If it were me, I'd be on the phone calling around to every place I could think of and work on the price. If you want it, you will find a way.

Don't settle. It will bug you forever.

If you don't love it, don't buy it! There are SO many countertop options, you should be able to find something you really, really like...if not actually love :)

My advice would be to take tomorrow off from kitchen design and do something outside, in the garden, go to dinner...but don't talk or think 'kitchen' for the entire day. Then come back Monday and see how you feel about your options.

It kills me that I find things I LOVE and they are out of budget. I have a 9K total budget and even have 7K for the counters alone. Next week I plan to go to a place where you only pay for the square footage of stone you use, not the whole slab. Only thing is their fab prices are sky high, so it kind of offsets the savings a bit, but I figure it is worth a shot if they have something I love. Last year when I priced I was able to afford a "7" on a scale of 8 at this place, so fingers crossed. I think taking a day off is wise-but I've gotta hang my cabinets I just finished;-)

ONce I fell in love with my countertop choice... I couldn't settle otherwise. It was more expensive then my cabinets by far. I saved so much elsewhere... I decided I had to have them. A year later, I couldn't imagine having anything else. My master bath still sits in it's original condition with all the new stuff sitting in the guest bedroom but I'll do it when I can afford it.

I know a lot of people feel you need to swoon over your countertops but there are plenty of us here that don't and are fine with that.

For me, the counter is a work surface first and what was important to me that it be easy to care for, require no maintenance, and hide spills and fingerprints. I chose a caesarstone and love it to death for the function, but I sure never wanted to strap it on my back and carry it anywhere. :-) On the other hand my cabs are pretty detailed and the backsplash adds color so it was important for the counter to fade back a little regardless.

I've never gone for counters with much movement anyway so didn't actually care for the quartzite from your other thread (I did love the excalibur one though). So take that for what it's worth ... probably nothing!

I just wanted to give you a different perspective, which is that there are a lot of us who never wanted to strap on a slab and take it with us, but are still completely happy with the countertops and the kitchen. Whether YOU are one of those though, is a different question. Since it's still gnawing at you then I think maybe you aren't ... and if you aren't then keep working to find a stone you can truly love. Good luck!

bahacca - Taggie got me thinking. Why not do a plain counter with an amazing backsplash. That would be a lot less expensive than the reverse. You could do some colour, some pattern...There are so many creative options for the bs if your counter isn't calling the shots. So instead of falling in love with your counter, you're falling in love with your tile.

This approach would definitely require a big mental shift from counter to bs, it's true. But you could still get a really nice, plainer-looking, counter!

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Great post, Taggie-
bahacca- You may still love your kitchen as a whole even if the granite on it's own doesn't make you swoon. I am realizing that some pieces of the puzzle NEED to take a "back seat" so the other items can shine : ) Like, a supporting cast?
That being said you should at least like it A LOT!

I just told my husband "I'm not getting the BA. I'm not in love with it and to spend that kind of money on something, I NEED to be." He said "You're kidding, right?" "Nope. Not kidding." "Then what are you going to get?" "I don't know yet., but I'm pretty sure I'll know it when I see it and it is in my budget." "When is that gonna be?" "As long as it takes to find it."
Thank you so much for telling me what I was trying to tell myself and needed to hear.

What will bother you most in the future? Granite that is not your #1 choice, or debt that hangs over you and affects every financial decision you make?

Knowing the vast variety of countertop materials available today, I cannot believe that the only product that will coordinate with the rest of your kitchen choices is one that is out of your price range.

I've thought about doing a great backsplash and a plain counter, but all of the tiles I love are far more suited for a bathroom. So my bathrooms-they will have plain old counters and amazing details when I get to them.
Maybe instead of red walls I should just do red silestone instead-at least my blood would blend in when my hubby kills me--but he did say get what I want!LOL
Thanks for your support, guys.

cooks-the thing is that the budget I have is in no way even close going to make or break us. It isn't like we have 9K in the bank and once it is gone I have to put it on a credit card or anything like that. In all honesty, I'm kicking myself for not telling my husband a higher budget to begin with so I had more wiggle room.
And I'm not saying that I cannot find anything to coordinate with my space. The BA would look really nice in the space. It just wouldn't feel like MY kitchen. For some background, we live in the house that my husband grew up in since he was 6. My mother in law and step father in law sold it to us at a killer deal. It all needs updated and I'm really trying to make it my own. I just finished refinishing the cabinets-in the WHOLE HOUSE by hand. I had no help from anyone (other than my husband who watched my girls while I've been in the garage for countless hours), so this is my labor of love. I just cannot slap any old slab on top of those cabinets I worked so hard on and call it a day.

There's settling and settling. I didn't get the most beautiful granite in the warehouse, not by far, but I got granite that I like, that looks good in our kitchen, that doesn't have any problems with staining. I didn't get my very favorite faucet ($1000), but I got a faucet with no plastic innards, that should last a long time and that I am comfortable with ($350). I really wanted a kitchen vent that would be as quiet as possible and vent to the outside, and we spent money for that ($900 just for the innards). I really wanted a kitchen with as few emissions as possible, and we spent more for no-added formaldehyde plywood and no-VOC finishes.

The kitchen can be your own even if each piece of it is not your very favorite in its category. I can completely understand your wanting to feel ownership, especially moving into your in-laws' old house. You can own the new kitchen-- the look and feel, the function, the easy upkeep, whatever are your crucial features-- without prioritizing each choice.

And that said, if I'd done all that work on the cabinets, I'd be wanting my dream countertop too.

Some suggestions....

scrimp on the things that are easy to change in the future, but not the permanent fixtures....

make your cost benefit analysis carefully....my cousin (an architect/building inspector) wanted granite counters but couldn't afford them, so he laid granite tiles with very small grout lines and laid it on the diagonal...it looks terrific...for the share of your budget, you'd better love the granite, but if you spend significantly less, you can afford not to be so fussy.

Example of granite tile:
{{!gwi}}

I wanted a quartz product more than I wanted the beauty of granite. I like what I ended up with, but I'm not in love with it. In fact I debated between two of them and am not sure I ended up with the right choice. But once I got the backsplash in and repainted the walls, I liked it a lot more.

I worked with my gf to pick out her granite and it was quite a process to narrow it down to the type of granite and then to the specific slab and then to the specific layout of the counters to pick up the graining. We went to at least 6 granite providers. But it was worth it...her counters look fabulous and became the jumping off point for the color scheme of her whole kitchen.

That stone was super gorgeous. It seems to make you so happy - is there any way to increase your budget? Anything that gives you so much pleasure to look at is worth $2k, but ONLY if it won't financially strap you. Other than that, I'd say keep looking in different yards. New stock appears pretty regularly. Good luck - I know how hard it is to have your heart set on something.

I always chime in on these, so here i go.

In the kitchen before this, I wanted marble or limestone. It was not a monetary issue. Back then, about 10 years ago, everyone advised against those materials. I put in granite. Always hated it.

Kitchen remodelling is never cheap -- even budget projects are usually significant to those who do them. A countertop is not a minor element --- i cant imagine loving a kitchen if you dislike the counter.

That doesnt mean break the budget. It means keep looking till you find something you like in budget.

35ftcabo-I think you hit the nail on the head. It WON'T financially strap us. But my husband is like 110% financially SAFE. To give an idea, we had the kitchen set financially to happen last year. We had a slab leak. Way we caught it is we live on a slope and oddly our front lawn had a snake-like strip that grew about 3x faster than all the other grass and we found our hot water was running out really fast when we used it. To demonstrate how cheap he(and I) are, we had to manually turn on our hot water heater if we wanted hot water. This meant going downstairs into our garage, up a ladder, turning it on. Using the hot water, going back outside, climbing the ladder, turning it off. Fine for most people to do for a week or so until you can get it fixed, right? We did it for 7 MONTHS. 7 MONTHS before we bit the bullet and paid to have our house repiped.
I wish just once I could spend money on something I WANTED instead of stuff we just NEED.

If the money isn't going to break you, then up the budget and get what you want. As long as it isn't going to put you way over your head in debt or keep your kids from going to college, then treat your self and go for it. Not rocket science.

oh - you and I posted at the same time - I didn't see your post about your extreme frugality when I wrote my previous post. The only advice I can give you is GET OVER IT. I don't believe is wasting money, but I don't believe in skimping. I would never wait 7 months to get the plumbing fixed nor would I settle on an expensive item I didn't like if I could afford what I really wanted.

ah I see, re: tile. Well, I'm *sure* you'll be able to find something better than BA in your price range! Good luck, keep searching, and keep an open mind to things that you might have overlooked before!

In defense of BA...I was in love with the slab in our old house. When we moved and looked for it again, none came close to its beauty. They all are not the same. In fact, when we were looking for that particular slab, there were many that didn't make my heart sing. So, I totally understand that you are not in love.

The slabs I have seen lately are just blah and with lots of pink in them. I always felt that the slab I had was special. I know there are others on here with BA who feel the same way. I'm not sure if it's a nationwide thing, but today's BA isn't the BA from a couple of years ago.

So, don't feel bad. I think you need to get what speaks to you. Your heart will race a little when you see "the one". You will WANT to take pictures of it. You will want to lick it to make sure no one else buys it. You will take the marker out of your purse and sign it so it is yours.

I haven't started yet; my situation is similar but different. The overall quality of my house and neighborhood is such that it's hard to justify spending for what I want knowing that it's like putting luxury italian leather in a hyundai.

Do I get what I want or do I settle for what's appropriate for the neighborhood and house? (I can afford a new kitchen, but I can't afford to move anytime soon.)

Sometimes what also happens is that when you have your choice installed, it looks different in your kitchen. I did not realize how much brown was in my ganite until it was installed.
I agree with the posters who say to get what your really like. If you don't, every time you walk into your kitchen you will be comparing it with what you should have gotten.
There are so many granites out there. You can always keep looking.

nap101-I even asked my husband "Do you see us moving in the next 10 years?" My answer was a resounding NO. I don't care if what I have is "fancy" compared to my neighbors. THey don't have to cook in my kitchen;-)
Bee-ITA about the slabs being very different. One we saw inside the showroom was VERY pink. My husband even said "Why is it so pink compared to the ones we saw that the other place?" The slabs I put on hold were the last 2 they even had before a new shipment comes in later.
I'm going to visit the place that only charges by the sq ft USED vs the entire slab. To give an idea, on my quote for the Fusion, I was charged for 116 sq feet(2 slabs) and the total usage is only 62. So I was paying for stone I wasn't going to use to the tune of the amount of money that I was OVER my budget. So a difference between "I can afford it and I cannot."
I cannot thank you guys enough for being a sounding board. I feel guilty knowing how many people are having trouble financially in this economic climate and here i am griping over a luxury, but thank you for making my feelings validated. I will continue the search for a budget friendly beauty.

Hey fellow shopper! Yes, I'm the one you ran into at Daltile yesterday. :)

Sorry to hear you don't like BA, since I had so much fun shopping with you and that's what I'm planning on using.

A few thoughts... with re to it being pinkish - as I told you I haven't looked at actual slabs because my home is being built out-of-state and I will pick the slabs there. I have seen it made up and loved it. But, I may go look here at Bedrosians slab place to see how it looks there. There are a few others that are close to BA if you like the look of BA but want more cream and less pink, but I'm sure you know that! :) Given the color of your beautiful newly finished doors, and that you are going to paint a wall red, if there is a hint of pink I do think your BA will "pink out." My doors are more brown so I think I would have less problem with that.

But, I hear ya on if you don't love it don't do it. I'm actually going to be changing my flooring after looking at it again yesterday. (Check out my post on the flooring forum and tell me what you think! :) )

I saw on another thread the granite you love. It is stunning! I hope you have looked at the ones with big movement made up, because as one salesperson told me, and I could see happening, sometimes it feels as if the counter-top is flowing into you. The issue for me with re to big movement is that although I have a huge island, it is two levels (has a breakfast bar) so that big movement will be lost in my kitchen. Thus the reason I want something more like the BA or Alaska ones.

And, seriously, you were awesome and a tremendous help! If you want to go shopping together again someday I'd love to do it. My schedule is a bit crazy, however. I'm also on a tight schedule as my builder wanted my choices yesterday, well, really more like a few weeks ago. But, I keep changing my mind. :) (I take Sundays and Mondays off - got off early yesterday which is why I was there when I was. I do have to take a dog down close to there tomorrow for chemo and may try to swing up that way after that if the vet will hang onto him for a few hours for me. I'm down in south county so it's a bit of a haul up there for me. I'd go up again today except Daltile and the Bedrosian's slab place aren't open.)

Regardless, it was awesome meeting you. And I know the "it's just not quite what I want and I'm settling" feeling. It's not a great feeling. I'm following my "that doesn't feel quite right" feelings which is why I keep changing things - much to the frustration of my designer and builder. =) Good luck!

I feel like I settled on everything. We kept our cabinets, we didn't get undercab lighting, we didn't get the high end range, blah blah blah. That said, I LOVE my kitchen. Love it. As in MWAH! Love it! We stayed in our budget, we splurged on the items and functions that were important, as an example, the largest stainless steel sink we could find, but not the fancy faucet.

We have caesarstone, so obviously a particular stone was not important to me, but it might be to you. In general, it's easy when you are shopping to be seduced by the best available, but it might not be what you need to work best and make you happy. Based on one of your posts, you might benefit from looking again at your budget and going for what you can afford, not what you think a kitchen should cost, is the first number higher?

"Do I get what I want or do I settle for what's appropriate for the neighborhood and house? "

I can tell you of my experience on this. I'll preface it by saying as low maintenance as I consider myself to be; I am typically from the "go for it" camp. We moved to DH's home which is in a much simplier older less "ritzy" neighborhood then my home. Half the size too. Since this was going to be our retirement home and I have absolutely no intention of moving till they roll me out... I did whatever my heart desired. That meant the soapstone I found painfully beautiful and functional and some high dollar appliances (most gotten at crazy cheap prices). The soapstone was the one thing there was no way to shop it. One place had what I wanted (up in NJ) and there was only one installer I was willing to have do the job (Fla. Joshua). I paid for shipping, travel time, and whatever else I had to pay for which included my traveling up from Florida to see my slabs up close and personal before they were shipped. My soapstone makes me happy every single day. I revel in it's glory, function, and have never ever regretted one single penny of my expense. Is it a luxury for me? Sure it is. Is it perhaps extreme for my area? You bet. Most people around here consider entry level granite high end and would not know the difference between what I have and anything else. And that's perfectly OK. I didn't do it for anyone but me. And if life gets in the way and necessitates my moving due to circumstance; I most likely won't get my worth for it. I am willing to live with that chance.

I knew the expense wouldn't break me. I had the CASH and DH was behind whatever made me happy. He's also absolutely in love with it too. So you have to weigh things. If your hubs really likes a material you love, you can pay cash and not break the bank, and you can live with the eventualities; then I (from the "go for it" side of the fence) would get what I love.

OP, it certainly sounds as if your family has the means to get what you love, so given these circumstances, I'd advise you not to settle.

More broadly speaking, I think unless somebody is rich, it's hard not to have to make some trade-offs. Generally, I do think that saying "Buy the best and you cry only once" holds true. Unfortunately, I certainly can't afford to buy the best for every single thing for my kitchen remodel, so I'm doing the mental math and deciding what I could comfortable settle for vs. what I really want to have and will wait to save up for.

Couple things I'm thinking as I read your post...but I'll start with my bug bummer.

I found a great old door in my neighbor's trash. It was a vintage french door that opened like a window in the middle. I spent a week stripping the paint and sanding it only to find out that I couldn't use it because of stupid Title 24 building code in California. I'm still sad as it sits in my garage asking me every time I go in there if it can come out and play. : (

But back to my rant, I mean post.

1. What is it about our culture that we want (and expect) EVERTHING. Okay, let me hop of my soapbox.....

2. I wanted marble in the kitchen, but we're a little messy with red wine and coffee so we SETTLED for Corian Rain Cloud. My husband loved it and, even as they finished putting it in, I wasn't 100%. Then we got the backsplash up and I see how easy it is to keep clean and - guess what - I love it.

3. Since I wanted marble, I got it in the bathroom. It was a small enough room that we could put hex on the floor and ceramic subway on the shower walls - we SETTLED with subway.

4. I really wanted a marble counter in that same bathroom. We went to Bedrosians (in So. Cal) and they quoted about $750 for a 29 x 24 counter and a 4 x 29 backsplash!

Our designer found a piece that was 55 x 69 for $300 and we got not only the counter/backsplash, but also the shower curb and ledge for the alcoves. Fabrication was about $700 and we have enough left over to for a small table and dresser top. That was some way to SETTLE!

At the end of the day, very few people get exactly what they want. You have to focus on what is most important to you, make sure it won't look way out of place with things that you do have to SETTLE on, and don't go into debt trying to get it.

Here are some other things we SETTLED on (by shopping for over a year before doing the job).

1. Jenn Air Professional 30" dual fuel range (wanted 36"), Moden Air hood, panel-ready Kitchen Aid counder depth fridge and panel-ready GE Monogram Dishwashwer. All that for the retail price of the fridge when you subtract what got for selling the fridge. [side note here - the panels were as much as I paid for the appliances - I count that cost in the cabinetry budget : P]

2. Newport Brass brushed stainless faucet - didn't want brushed stainless, but got it for 90% of the retail price on ebay. Got the exact faucet I wanted in a finish that still worked with the rest of the kitchen.

3. Another 15% off on the kitchen floor tile because my husband made me go to one more store on tile row while I was tired and crabby.

I'll stop here, but you get my gist. Good luck with your choices - it's much better to remember the process from the "other side" of the job! : )

We had the problem of knowing what we wanted but not being able to find it. Fell in love with a display countertop at Bedrosians (Sylmar), but the slabs they had in stock had lighter, grayish, washed out color (it's a green granite). Continued searching and found either no material or material we didn't like. So we started considering alternates. At about the 10th stoneyard, we found beautiful slabs of the original material we were looking for, at a great price. It's been installed about a year and I still love looking at it. That being said, we liked some of the alternates very much, and although they weren't our first choice, I would still be very happy to have.

I would keep searching. You don't want to spend that much money on something that you're really not that excited about. There are quite a few stoneyards in the OC, and in the San Fernando valley are several large stoneyards and a bunch of small ones. Search the internet and make some phone calls. We found that some of the smaller yards had interesting types of granite that the larger ones didn't have, and not all yards carry the same selection. The smaller yards probably don't have your Fusion quartzite, but maybe have older BA with color you like. The place we got ours was a smaller yard, and my friend found her lovely Typhoon Bordeaux at another smaller place nearby. You might find something that you haven't seen or really considered before. I think someone on this board had a kitchen with Magma granite. It looks similar to the Fusion. You might check that out also.

I know it's a time consuming and frustrating process. It took us weeks before we were done. Hang in there, I'm sure you'll find something that's right for you.

Another vote to keep searching. You aren't excited enough about the BA, you need to explore more options and find something you are happier with. The Fusion you posted in the other thread IS gorgeous, but I believe there probably are other stones you can be happy with. The BA doesn't seem to make you happy. With a bit more time, you may decide that staying in budget will make you happier than the Fusion, or you may decided to give up something else to afford the Fusion, or you may find something other than the BA in budget that makes you excited (maybe not Fusion excited, but excited nontheless).

I can't say my granite makes me swoon. I like it well enough but none of them put me over the edge or made me weak in the knees. The kitchen altogether looks pretty good with minor adjustments coming soon. But even then, it's just a kitchen and it's fine but unless I could start all over with unlimited budget it's unlikely that it will ever make me pass out cold or swoon on impact. Sure would be fun though.

"There's settling and settling." Truer words never spoken.

In a sense, I settled at the outset by deciding we would stay close to our existing footprint rather than bumping out the exterior wall or removing our computer room for more kitchen sq footage. This allowed us to do our kitchen now, rather than in 12 years when the kids are all gone.

As some longtime posters here know, I started out by falling in love with Costa Esmerelda. This was a beautiful stone from Iran but it was both too expensive for our budget and the slabs at many yards were no longer the true Costa that people had been loving. Nor did my husband really love it. I also went through a phase with the Superwhite/Moon Night quartzites. While looking for one, I found instead a gorgeous deep blue and a nearly as gorgeous deep green. We ended up with the blue--totally different direction than I had planned.

I still really love the superwhites, and am reserving the idea of doing my master bath someday with it. But I definitely don't feel like I settled with my kitchen granite. I think it's beautiful. (I am adding my link--scroll down to see the granite to see if I "settled.")

So my advice is
1. Keep Looking
2. Be open to going in a completely different direction. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Here is a link that might be useful: My nearly finished kitchen

beeps! I had so much fun with you yesterday! I realized when I was helping you that I like BA, not LOVE it and I really want to LOVE something I'm spending that much $ on. I may wind up coming back to it as I know it or something similar will look really nice in my space. I also think the darker backsplashes we were looking at are more along my tastes and I pretty much HAVE TO go lighter. I'll probably end up on "rock row" as I call it this week sometime. I'm going to look at other yards and go to Stone Age to see what pricing they can do on Fusion since I won't have to buy the whole slab.
I have pics of my space in the "oak cabinets-before and after" thread if anyone has any bright ideas. I pretty much NEED a lighter granite since my husband wants to get darker floors eventually.
I am going to just keep looking as you all have said. My goal is to find a stone that makes me as excited as the Fusion does in my budget. If I find after a while that that isn't going to happen, I may look at ways to increase the budget. We have TONS of projects on our to do list, so there are plenty I'd be willing to push out a year in order to be happy with the one space I am in the most in my home.
colorfast-thanks for the reminder about the different directions as well. I had originally been looking at dark granites with tons of movement when I came across the Fusion and my husband and I decided then we needed a lighter granite. I think that shift in thinking that happened so quickly led me to hastily decide on BA after I got quotes on the Fusion. I am SOOOOOO beyond excited that my cabinets are finally DONE that I think I rushed into the next step without really thinking things through. I'll keep an open mind when looking and keep on treking.