And the Winner is...

Natural stone Quartz. For the kitchen countertop that is. Natural stone quartz is a very hard stone, with extreme durability and stain resistancy (hurray) and is not to be mixed up with the man made quartz countertops that are very popular these days. We love the look of white marble with gray veining, such as a traditional carrera marble, and wanted a natural stone countertop, but since marble is a very porous material and stains really easily it's not the best choice for a house full of children and red wine drinkers. The other natural stone choices were granite, limestone and quartz, of which quartz is said to be the most easy to maintain. We picked two slabs that have a white base color and interesting gray veining. The fabricator will come and measure our countertops later this week and they will then cut them and install, hopefully within days.