Well, I was going to wait until things settled (read: the stone calmed down) a bit to do the full story, but I can't make you wait for 3(!) weeks, so...

This is how it went down:

36 steps that curve and wind around the front of the house. This is the easy way in.
4 brave men
1 very long day
Some sore muscles I am certain (theirs)
A few less fingernails (mine)

This is what came out of it:

{{!gwi}}


{{!gwi}}

The stone hasn't seasoned yet and the oil is dissipating unevenly (the first oiling was just this morning and mineral oil is all I have on hand right now), but the sample did the same thing and it evened out after about a week.

OOOhhhh and Ahhhh! The light from the windows really is going to sparkle on that stone! what did you end up getting? Julia?

Wow what kind of stone is that? Love it.

This one is Beleza. It was among the harder stones, but quieter than Julia.

I am still a bit nervous about the look (it is more rustic and carries more visual "weight" than what came out), but we had a blast this morning spilling OJ on it :).

OMG I just want to touch it! Do you keep going into the kitchen to stare at it? I know I would! I LOVE it!

Those counters look great!!!
My soapstone is still in a crate on our driveway. I can hardly wait to see it. Thanks for showing pics of your beautiful counters to tide me over!

LOL about the spilling on it. You must be having so much fun with your new counters after the previous counter fiasco. Your Beleza looks great!

That looks beautiful. I'm sure you'll love it. i can't imagine carrying that very far - what a project.

Looks great!

Your new counters look lovely. Congratulations.

We've been using our Beleza counters for just at a year this week and they're my favorite part of our kitchen. We've never oiled ours (we liked the naturally dark gray with some green color of our slab) but it's darkened naturally, especially around the stove. And as you mentioned the Beleza is quite hard. We've had a few very small, virtually unnoticeable scratches, easily buffed out with a green scrubby pad. And no dings anywhere (touch wood).

Good luck with yours. I hope you love them as much as we do.

Your counters look lovely! (Just like all the other little glimpses I've seen of your home.) Enjoy!

Beautiful!

I think it fits in with your sooooo pretty house. But your opinion is the only one that matters, so I hope you love it and it does everything you want it to, after your last awful experience.

My counters are still absorbing oil a little unevenly, months later. There's one strip that always gets light weeks before the rest. If the oilyness is bothering you you can just wipe the excess off. I't not "absorbing in" so it won't affect it. It also helps get any excess sanding grit off from installation.

Nice job! Worth a few fingernails.

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement everyone (I love this forum!).

We cooked a typical "kitchen is in" dinner last night (Ratatouille) and I must say that I am starting to ease a bit. I realized how afraid I was of the last counter (I tried not to put anything on it at all, except in the "aw, darn it" moments when citrus or strawberries or tomatoes rolled or dripped off the wood chopping block and I just gave up momentarily until the task at hand was completed). The old top scratched very easily (with wood if you can believe that) and cracked in place (in three spots). If kitchen countertops were celebrities, what came out was the cell-phone throwing supermodel.

So far, I know the Soapstone is an absolute dream to clean. I love that I can (and did!) set a hot pan from the stovetop or oven right on it, and the smooth silky feel is just as nice as the "feel" of the last top.

I haven't scratched it yet, but I know that if and when I do, Soapstone will not behave in any way like the last top... and that in and of itself is a very, very beautiful thing.

All in all, I like being in the kitchen much more because of the Soapstone.

DH is making me nervous about the look (it was the flow of those lovely horizontal lines that we lost and the marbled texture of the Soapstone is not at all what he expected), but it looks different every time I see it, so I am going to concentrate on the other things that need to be taken care of (like the debacle of the cabinets that need to be fixed, and the floor that the GC managed to scratch moving the fridge back in that has to be refinished), and hope that I can do something with the backsplash that will re-instate the horizontal flow (I have some ideas. LOL).

Amazingly, Tom Shadley's fabulous demo job meant that the old counters were removed with some large lengths intact, so we might be able to have them re-honed and made into desktops or side tables (or something far, far away from food prep...I just feel so bad about them ending up in a landfill), but I think for now I must throw a blanket over them so that I stop comparing the two.

I love seeing your countertops and hearing about how happy you are with the soapstone. My soapstone counters are supposed to be installed on the 23rd and I can't wait! When i went to the fabricator to layout the templates, they let me run my hands over a soapstone counter they were just finishing for install and it felt so wonderful! I hope you keep enjoying your countertops!