What color range are you looking at? We have Ceasarstone Organic White in the kitchen and two bathrooms - you're welcome to come look! We originally saw Ceasarstone installed at the Pedini Showroom in Mountain View.

Oh so nice of you! I'm thinking a light to medium grey. Or possibly a beige. Thank you for the lead! Do they have a few different colors installed?

When I saw them (more than a year ago), they had at least an Organic White counter and one of those textured (crocodile-like) ones. They probably had others too, but we were pretty sure we wanted white, so we didn't pay much attention to the others.

Thank you! We might go look at Sullivan's in the east bay this weekend. It's not far and our neighbor is getting her engineered quartz there and says they do have a showroom.

Thank you! We might go look at Sullivan's in the east bay this weekend. It's not far and our neighbor is getting her engineered quartz there and says they do have a showroom.

I have checked out this showroom in San Carlos (I am in San Mateo):
http://www.thecountertopstore.com/
They have a very large selection of quartz and some granite... good showroom.

Although, at this point I am pretty set on getting quartzite (probably taj mahal), which is a something they didn't have. I mean to checkout http://davincimarble.com, but if there are any other quartzite places in the bay area, I'd love to know!

We are just getting started... still need to finalize floor plan/structural plan. Then find a GC, cabinet maker, appliances, etc... (and pick everything out!)... So any bay area recommendations for anything would be welcome :)
So many decisions coming next year!

We are putting in Caesarstone so here's what I know re: seeing CS in person. Sullivan's is a great place! They are super friendly and very knowledgeable. Their showroom isn't large but I did find it helpful to see actual counters, not just small samples. They have CS counters and some other brands too.

If you look on CS's home page, they have a place where you can put in your zip code to find a showroom. When I put in mine, many places come up, and several list what color countertop the store has on display. Very useful for deciding if a visit is worth your time. For example, IKEA in Emeryville has six different CS colors set up in their store, and ALNO in SF has nine CS kitchens on display.

Thank you! Oh ikea. Dh might kill me if I suggest IKEA. I looovve it there and he thinks it's one of the rings of hell. Lol.

I'm with your dh re: IKEA is one of the rings of hell! I braved it to go see the display of CS pebble they have on display. We're putting in honed pebble but no place I could find has CS honed anything on display. I figured seeing polished pebble would at least let me see the overall color/look I will be getting. It was worth it but just barely :-)

Try Pietra Fina in Hayward for quartzite -- they have a good selection. It's just a slab yard though, no showroom, and they don't move slabs on weekends. They will hold slabs for 7 days for your contractor or fabricator to order.

We have our Taj Mahal satin quartzite slab waiting for us at Integrated Resources in Dublin. They have a great selection, and they have another location in Brisbane. We hope to install in February...you are welcome to visit if you haven't decided by then (we are in Alamo). Getting our wood island top from Sullivan's...Iroko Spekva - so yummy!

Ooooh, thank you all so much. So much help and so many kind offers! My neighbor told me about a good sandwich shop near Sullivan's and since it's a showroom it should be okay to take the kids along. So I think we will try to do that tomorrow. I think slab yards have to wait for a time when I have child care.

I have really felt like we are going in circles over the counter choice so I'm excited to have something of a plan about how to proceed.

If you are looking for quartzite I'll put in another vote for pietra fina. very nice and more unique selection. they also seem to know about stone.

Thanks for the quartzite recommendations... I clipped all your posts!
ssg7741, we are also thinking of doing butcher block on the island and taj mahal everywhere else... What color and type are your cabinets (we are unsure what we want still)? I would definitely love to see how your kitchen turns out (at least in pictures)! We are hoping to do the kitchen in the summer (DH says spring, but he is a naive optimist :) )

This all brings back fond and not-so-fond memories of our 2006 remodel (previous home). We were in everyone of these places and on multiple occasions - and add Daltile in San Jose to the mix - we stopped on the way to LA, and actually found the slabs we eventually used. The not-so-fond part was how we obsessed over this, and how many weekends were spent looking, etc. but in the end, we loved what we got, so I guess it was worth it.

Definitely one of the downsides to a natural stone product--the need to find "the" slab(s). I have been advocating for matte stainless steel on practicality grounds, but dh is worried it will be "too shiny." So I'm trying to find a place to see it installed in person and to find some back up options.

I had originally planned on soap stone, but we put it in our bathroom about 18 months ago and I'm not feeling it for the kitchen. I think it is darker than I would prefer to work on everyday. Dh still likes the soapstone a lot so it's a bit of a challenge.

Just wanted to say that we stopped by Sullivan's today. They had a few options on display, lots of samples to look at and were friendly without being pushy. (The sandwich shop next door had okay food, with an extremely hipster vibe. I think a few people were very disconcerted by the presence of small children in their habitat. Lol.)

Sheesh. It's not shiny. Find a well-used sink and show him. Don't think you'll find anything in stainless labeled "matte" but there are plenty of non-shiny brushed and textured finishes.

Not shiny (or finished):
{{gwi:2142972}}

Thanks for the picture! I have seen the dullest finishes called antique matte or sueded.