> Any help appreciated, Aileen
>

When we recently re-modeled our kitchen it came down to Granite vs.
Formica. Though SS didn't occur to me. At first I couldn't find any
granite I liked (we were on the 12" tile thing), too many veins that had
to be matched, weird colors. Finally I found some plain old gray
Yosemite style granite. Not only that it was only $5 a square. $500
for granite and installation.

While formic is not particularly indestructible, it's cheap enough to
replace every 5 years.