Dear Concrete:

We've never liked each other. Yes, I'm being blunt, just the way you were with me this week, laughing at my 70 grit as I tried to cut through an etch of yours. Unlike Travertine and her eons-old cousins, you can change your ways technologically and continue to do so, cruelly toying with my optimistic nature. I want to hate you the way stoners hate Corian, but that may cost me too much emotionally and materially. We fought bitterly for two days, but I'm not sorry. We're both better off; your appearance improved as did my checking account balance.

You sweet-talked your way to the 15th floor of this oceanfront remodel 11 years ago, when you were the hottest thing on the scene. Do these bring back any memories?

Your fabricators did a nice job; these curved cabinets can be tricky to detail. Your graceful and fluid returns wouldn't look any different had I done you myself:

Your installers, not so much. How did they ever collect leaving your splash like this? How could the former owners overlook this for over a decade? Matching cookie jars?

Of course my first attempt at a repair failed miserably. I thought I could steal an inch from your backside like I do with solid surface when I have no color matched repair material, but your superficiality ruined everything. Instead of having your aggregates ground and exposed consistently, your fines were troweled to the surface and finished:

I think they are nuts for doing it, but on the second day I found out the new owners are ditching the hood for an over-the-range microwave. That freed up a 5 1/4" x 30" piece of color and particulate match. Yeah, I cut you right in the kitchen. My Festool sucks up virtually everything. Maybe they can poultice the grease spots out of your top edges. I couldn't cut 'em off or the edges wouldn't match:

I couldn't do anything with your crack at the sink rail. I doubt you'll come any further apart; after all you are Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) and have metal lath in your midsection. An external rod like Unistrut reinforcement across the sink base would have prevented this along with dead level cabinets:

Your scarf joints at the sink looked terrible, as do your unfilled and pitted edges:

But I gave you some love and some color matched methel methacrylate:

Here's your stainy etchy thing at the top right of the sink. You made me pay, but I got it out, exposing some air bubbles in the process that had to be filled. The light reflection shows the sealant they used that had worn away completely in the sink area. I guess almost all tops are plastic. Corian is acrylic, engineered stone is polyester, and most granites are resinated (plasticized) at the factory. And now you concrete. My Festool 150 with 80 grit abrasive left you nude except for a light coat of Proseal and paste wax:

You seemed to like it. Before and after:

There is etching and then there is etching. Although it's difficult to tell from this picture, the brown spot towards the sink is about 1/8" deep and virtually un-repairable inconspicuously. I'd suggest a custom stainless escutcheon to the sink edge; no topical sealer on earth stands a chance. Like the heavy trucks and freeze-thaw cycles on I-75 in Michigan, hand soap is your Kryptonite. Who knew?

Concrete, to refinish you properly, I'd have to buy a small planetary machine and with the abrasives, that would be about a $3,000.00 investment. Considering this is the second time we've tangoed in four years, we're going to have to start seeing a lot more of each other before I'm willing to make that kind of commitment to you. Even with the machine's beautiful finish, suppose I cut through your layer of fines? Exposed aggregate and more pinholes to fill? Now your deck doesn't match your splash. Pull the splashes, refinish, and reinstall? Maybe. I never underestimate how much some folks are willing to pay. Fashion trends, vanity, and you Concrete, remain my patrons.