It sounds amazing, but I am currently working with a Mom from Gig Harbor and her daughter, owner of a doggy boutique, and they are already busy with holiday plans!  Mom is giving her daughter a granite kitchen for Christmas.  Wow, makes my sausage & cheese log gift set look a bit... Sorry, Mom.  Back to this story though.  We started out wanting a pitched or broken edge.  There is a large center island which wings out on two sides from the sink area. Currently, there is a raised bar. The clients considered lowering the bar to create a 1-level island, but in the end after consulting with Jeff Sheridan  of Natural Stone Refinishing who will do the tear-out & prep, that the least labor-intensive & costly solution would be to keep the island as-is, possibly adding a couple more inches to the raised bar to provide a larger top.  The client has a lot of beautiful glass items and candlesticks etc. that she displays on the raised top, so keeping it raised will allow her to show off her treasurers nicely as well. 
     About two weeks ago the gals tackled the warehouses in Tacoma to look at slabs and came back with a hold on 3 pieces of 3cm Sienna Bordeaux.  This is a popular B-level priced stone.  The idea was to laminate the raised bar area and lower island top but use a 1.25" single edge on the rear tops. We recently did this on another job in Bremerton using a 3 cm laminated edge that can be seen on our website which is called laminated top radius with 45 degree chamferr.  Wow, that one looks terriffic raised.  But back to this story.  The pricing came out  at a whopping $14, 000 since we are looking at three slabs.  Sorry Santa, but the budget here is only $10,000 which has to include everything.  So, let's talk about shopping. Had a man in yesterday from Maple Valley and he was completely shocked by the idea that you can shop granite slabs.  But, when you think about it, we have several local suppliers in Seattle as well as Tacoma and they have to move inventory as they are always receiving new product.  Who doesn't love a SALE.  Fabricators routinely receive special clearance pricing.  There is usually nothing wrong with the material. Usually, not always.  The material prices can be less than $20 per foot.  A second trip to Meta Marble in Seattle and we walked away (stole away?) with 4 book-matched slabs of Giallo Matisse 2 cm. This brought us in on budget, but the biggest factor is that the island needing a seam can now enjoyt the artistry of a book-matched seam.  The final effect will look like a million.  We plan to install a 4" splash but add a baby bullet liner from a Red Rock series on top that is 3/4" by 6" to finish the look.  The kitchen should be completed well in time for a family birthday event. 
      On another note, oddly related since when I met a couple from Tacoma recently their house was still decorated from Xmas or seems like it stays decorated year round?  Speaking of shopping, the husband had become smitten with a slab called Spectrus.  This material is dark with cream and wood tones but spendy--a C or D level.  We really hit a speed bump in Fife where most all slabs are 2 cm since they have pretty young grandkids that spend as lot of time at their eating bar and they really wanted a sub-top, so we took an unexpected trip to Dal Stone in Seattle where we got lucky with slabs that had been sized-down. This is where one end is amaller and the whole slab is priced at 52" instead of the 65" it is on the higher end. What a great savings! We came in under the price of 2nd choice Copper Canyon.  Seems like someone has been awfully good to get such a terricffic holiday surprise! Speaking of that, now is the time to get on the schedule if you want the tops in by Christmas or Thanksgiving. You need to figure at least a week turn-around from the time of measure, and this year we have a pretty full schedule brewing--oh yeah, it 's Halloween Saturday!  Have a great weekend and stay safe.