Under cabinet lighting is a great addition and if you have an island some great hanging lights over this all help to highlight the counter. With kitchen lighting the more the better so pot lights to give overall lighting, you don't want shadows in the space. A good lighting designer can be very helpful, most lighting stores have one on staff.

As a comment on the "documentation" concerns out of China, we have had several bids from Chinese companies (for flooring and a few other things). A few (not all) have asked if we required any "stickers" added to them. Like CSA standards or anything like that. They have excellent print technology and they can put ANY documentation sticker on any product we need/want. Yah...we walked away - rather quickly I might add. It happens over and over and over again. Independent lab results from a 3rd party (like a known German Testing Facility) is what we look for. Because I speak German, I get to call Cologne Germany to VERIFY the document then sent us was what was tested. So far so good. They seem to have figured out that some documents can't be faked...but stickers are NO PROBLEM. We've dealt with the higher end of the Chinese market for several years. They have done their due diligence (and so have we...we have enough "other" languages to check documentation from multiple countries). The higher-end Asian manufacturers also have EXPENSIVE operating costs which makes their products close to the same price as the European made products. They can't undercut European/N. American prices if they have higher operating costs. Where we benefit is the cost of SHIPPING those products directly to a N. American port that happens to be 30km down the road from our warehouse. Shipping costs are HALF of what they are out of Europe. This is where we have benefited from working with high-end Chinese manufacturers.

@Meghan Stamelos What color would you describe the veins and background? Is this a subtle veining or more on the busy side? I have Pure White cabinets, and light brown wood floors. The room is somewhat open and in order to carry on, or at least coordinate with the paint in the other areas, I will need to select a greige, or natural tan/variation for the pain on the nearby walls. Do you think this counter would work with that? I like the coordination of your backsplash, counters, and cabinets a lot. How does this counter compare to Minuet, Cirrus, or Snowy Ibiza, if you recall from your "search". After awhile it seems everyone who does a remodel of their kitchen starts speaking the same language.:)

@Theresa Powell The same thing M M stated happened to me. I was so close to going with Dolce Vita until I took the sample home and practically destroyed it. Come to find out it is actually a marble. My next almost purchase was a slab of Dover White marble that had been treated with Antolini's Azerocare product. The sample wasn't as easily damaged as Dolce Vita was, but I'm still too scared to go with it. You have to sign a waiver when you purchase it which is enough for me to realize it's probably not a good fit for my family's kitchen habits. I do really love it though. I'm afraid it's going to take me forever to find something I truly love that is also practical.