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In this episode, Jana and her guest Julie Arcelay share their process of helping clients admire, evaluate, and select from a wide range of natural stone surfaces for countertops. In the following companion episode, Jana and Julie continue exploring countertop options with a focus on man-made surfaces and sustainability.Julie Arcelay is currently the Designer Sales Manager at Consentino, Los Angeles. For over 15 years, Julie has been active in the design industry both in showrooms and through her involvement in the industry's top organizations: the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, and the National Kitchen and Bath Association. Julie’s area of expertise is in assisting designers through product training and continuing education so that they, in turn, can educate their clients.Instagram: @juliearcelayFacebook: jarcelayhttps://www.cosentino.com
From Disaster to Dream Home! takes you inside the homebuilding process, from the ground up. In each episode, acclaimed interior designer Jana Rosenblatt brings you both the time-tested practices and the latest trends in homebuilding through conversations with leading architects, designers, and industry experts. Whether you’re building a custom home, rebuilding after a natural disaster, or renovating an older home, From Disaster to Dream Home! is your trusted source for the insights and connections you need to bring your home dreams into reality! www.FromDisasterToDreamHome.com
This is the EWN Podcast Network. Countertops. We are saying no to tile and yes to solid surfaces, either natural or man made. We are talking about marble, granite, quartzite, man made quartz and porcelain today on From Disaster to Dream Home.
Speaker 2:Welcome to From Disaster to Dream Home, the podcast that takes you inside the home building and rebuilding process. When interior designer Jana Rosenblatt had an 80 foot tree fall in her house, she saw the opportunity to create the customized home of her dreams. From Disaster to Dream Home provides you with the information and resources Jana wished she had during her rebuilding process. Now she's sharing with you the expertise of leading architects and home builders and the newest products and materials on the market. Here's your host, Jana Rosenblatt.
Speaker 1:Welcome back, home builders and remodelers, to another episode of From Disaster to Dream Home, the podcast that will take you through the process of building or rebuilding a new home from the ground up in 52 episodes. If you are rebuilding after the loss of your home or building a new home from the ground up, each episode of From Disaster to Dream Home will help you and your design team know what you will need to do to make the construction process fluid so your dream home can rise from the ashes. Have you ever been to a natural stone showroom? If not, you owe it to yourself to go at least once. It is like going to a museum of beautiful natural art.
Speaker 1:It is one thing to see finished countertops installed in a home, but the majestic slabs themselves make us make this my favorite part of the building process. In the design decision process of a new home, the countertop selection is one of the most important to make as early as possible as it will coordinate with all the other materials you will need to select. Once you have purchased the items needed in the framing stage, like the plumbing fixtures, the windows, the doors, appliances, it is time to turn to the interior decorative materials even though they will not be installed until about two thirds of the way through the project. I always shop with my clients for countertop materials first before any other materials that include color and texture. Why?
Speaker 1:Because there are less of them in the world that you will love. There are simply fewer natural stone and man made slab options available to select from than other materials that we will need. For many of us, the slab countertops are going to be one of the largest material investments in our homes. So it should also be the star of the show, either in its simple, neutral beauty with top of the line functionality or because it is a visual showstopper. Our guest today is Julie Arcele.
Speaker 1:Julie is currently the designer sales manager at Constantino Los Angeles. Julie's area of expertise is in assisting designers with product training and education so they, in turn, can educate their clients. For more than fifteen years, Julie has been active in the design industry, both in showrooms and through her involvement in the industry's top organizations, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, and the National Kitchen and Bath Association. She has seen the changes and innovations in countertop material firsthand, and her enthusiasm for natural and man made countertop materials is contagious. Constantino, as a company, has also made a huge transition from the 1945 when they began harvesting natural stone in Spain to 1988 when they launched their first manufactured stone materials.
Speaker 1:Until today, when they remain on cutting edge of the industry with their man made Silestone, Sensa, and now Dekton ultra compact surface materials. Having recently toured the Constantino showroom and slab yard with Julie, I'm especially excited to talk with her today about natural stone. Julie, as you've been in the business almost as long as I have, maybe as long, tell me about how you landed in the solid surfaces industry.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Jana. Actually, I have an interior design background. So while I was in school quite a while ago, I was looking for an internship as I was finishing up my degree and ended up working for a local tile showroom who also sold natural stone and solid surfaces as my internship and knew nothing about tile, knew nothing about porcelain, about any of that. I was, you know, in college and absolutely fell in love with it. I actually sold Silestone while I was there when Constantino first brought it to North America.
Speaker 3:Interesting. And then my career just I kept gravitating towards outside sales because I had that design background. I worked and meshed well with interior designers. I have a lot of respect for what they do. So from there, I went to waterworks, which was high in style and quite a bit of stone.
Speaker 3:Then I fell into appliances, which was a great curve. I kind of go back into kitchens, whether it's surfaces or plumbing or appliances. And through the pandemic, I started taking a look. Was starting to miss the solid surfaces, all of that tile and just the creativeness of what you're putting into those spaces. And in reality, it can be in that space or that building for the life of the space or building.
Speaker 3:So it was natural fit. It's a great company. I really, I worked with my colleagues prior to coming to work for Cosentino. So it just seemed to be a really good fit.
Speaker 1:That is a very interesting process that you went through to get to where you are today. So since the beginning of time, through and including the 1980s, countertops were most often made of ceramic tile. Even though granites had become popular in the 1970s, we are not even gonna talk about tile countertops as an option. Let's talk about the benefits of solid surfaces. Julie, do you feel as strongly about ridding the world of grout on countertops as I do?
Speaker 3:You know, you have to respect tile and grout. That's all we, you know, over a hundred years ago to put into our bathrooms, and they, you know, did the ceilings and all of that. So respect that, but we have to remember that grout does need to be sealed and we do not do that. So it doesn't make a great kitchen counter, even a bathroom counter, because mold and things can grow in that grout. It has its place, you know, historically being correct in a home or a space that it has its place there.
Speaker 3:But in our everyday working, you know, having that grout and what can grow on that and also the unevenness, you know, of that's you're limited on the size of the tile. So, yeah, I don't think it's a great area to be working on. You can't write on it.
Speaker 1:No, you can't. Yeah. No, that was a very generous response. When I started as an interior designer twenty plus years ago, most countertopes were fabricated out of natural marble or granite as the most prevalent solid surfaces available in the slab yards. What's the difference between marble and granite, and what are they best used for?
Speaker 1:So granite is going to be your strongest natural stone, and that's because of the corks that's found in it. That's what makes it so durable. But granite and marble and all natural stone are
Speaker 3:of mother nature. So they do need to be sealed, especially if you're in an area where there's going to be food prep or lots of water. The water and the food and items that we're placing on that will get absorbed into those natural stones so they need to be sealed. Granite is going to be stronger than marble. A lot of chefs really like marble though because it's a lot cooler and easier to work on.
Speaker 3:So when they're rolling out dough and things like that. But marble does need to be sealed twice a year because it's porous granite. And, again, granite's so strong because of the quartz that's in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's, you know, always interesting to me. I I feel there are huge drawbacks to using marble in kitchens for normal people that aren't, you know, professional chefs. Yet a lot of builders and homeowners select it for their kitchen countertops. If they can't be dissuaded, at least I warn them of the potentials of staining, scratches scratching, and surface wear.
Speaker 1:So I didn't realize that, you just said that you need to, seal it twice a year. On marble. Granite. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:You also keep need to keep in mind what you're cleaning the counters with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what is most recommended for
Speaker 3:the udder? You want to use soap and water, but depending on what you're grabbing, you normally would wipe things down or even that kitchen table, whatever is in that product that you're spraying onto the counters can actually break down the sealer. So think of stone as a sponge. It's going to absorb everything that's on protected. So, you have to keep that in mind, especially as you're talking to your clients or even as a homeowner, I use my kitchen a lot or in the luxury land.
Speaker 3:You have chefs that come in all the time. So you want to think about the surface that you're putting down on that counter, who's going to be cooking on it and how they're going to be cooking on it. You don't know what that chef or that caterer is going to do on your counter and you don't want to come in and you bought these beautiful natural stone slabs and they're all damaged and stained and scratched or even chipped. Marble can be a lot softer or is a lot softer than granite because it does not have that makeup of that quartz in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's interesting is, of course, you know, people who buy a home with existing countertops aren't going through the sales process, so they may not be really aware of what has to be done. I have a really, I have a recent story, a client of mine put a tea cup down on her bathroom countertop and there was a ring of tea that no one could get off. And one time when they were away and their cleaning person, who was really like a family member to all of us, and I took a bold step and we took cloths with bleach and kind of saturated it. We let it sitting there and we kind of changed it off and rinsed it off every half hour or so. In a couple of hours, we actually got rid of that stain.
Speaker 1:But I'm sure that affected the surface and it should at this point be resurfaced.
Speaker 3:Correct. And at some point you can only resurface those so much before you're affecting the compost or even just that shine or non shine with the product.
Speaker 1:Interesting. So people are drawn to marble mostly because of its natural beauty and lightness, and it ranges from clean whites to neutral grays. Granite, on the other hand, comes in deeper, earthier tones ranging from medium browns through golds to grays and blacks. And there are a wide variety of patterns ranging from active organic movement to consistent flex and or a black or colored dots. I highly recommend it for its durability, but clients are not always drawn to its colors and patterns.
Speaker 1:Then after years of guiding clients through the marble versus granite conversations, quartzite came into the showrooms. When did you start seeing quartzite on sales floors? So quartzite has been around. However, it tends to get mislabeled incorrectly.
Speaker 3:That's
Speaker 3:where
Speaker 1:incorrectly.
Speaker 3:That's where the thing when you Google, oh, it etches very easily or you can scratch it very easily. And it could be that it was actually a marble label Right. What makes quartzite so much more durable is the fact that it has high amounts of quartz. And as I said, quartz is found in granite, which is what makes granite so strong is the court. So, one way to test to see, and this is for the homeowners as they're going into the slab yards and starting to look and, you know, sometimes we start looking at price and, you know, that might be our driver versus the beauty of, you know, because the more pattern and color, the price is going to be a little bit higher.
Speaker 3:So you may want to go in with, you know, a slice of lemon and you know, if you're not too sure if it's quartzite or marble, the lemon will right away etch the surface. So if it does start to etch, maybe go on a little corner somewhere that would normally get cut off anyways, then you know you're actually looking at marble. So what makes quartzite again is that amount of quartz that's in it. You're typically going to find a polished surface. So if you're looking for more of a honed trend or kind of a matte look, you're not going to have that with natural quartzite.
Speaker 1:Quartzite, the beauty of it is that if it is marked correctly, that it isn't normally subject to etching and scratching or staining. Because as you say, the level of quartz, the shiny, beautiful, sparkly lightness of it, is that mica?
Speaker 3:That I'm not familiar with. Primarily, we don't sell quartzite. We do make quartzite, but I can research that for you.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. That would be lovely. And I will do a little bit more thinking about that too. But essentially, it's a very durable option, so it's a really great countertop option. But there are other less known natural surfaces besides the marble and granite.
Speaker 1:So what are some of those and what are their attributes?
Speaker 3:So you have limestone, limestone, which is probably the softest of all natural stone because those are formed in the bottom of river beds. You have to remember natural stone takes millions of years for the earth to form. So limestone will have kind of a beachy scene. There are usually some creams and golds, little bit of green. You'll see a lot of fun fossils in there.
Speaker 3:But again, it's a very porous because it's that sediment of just all the dirt and organisms and things that are in riverbeds that land on and settle onto the bottom of the river. And then that river dries out and millions of years later, can go in and pull out those large slabs, but you will get some fun fossils in there. Well, You tend to see it more on floors, stair treads or even walls just because of the fun. You can see some little seashells and critters that were embedded or even leaves that were impressed. That sediment was falling
Speaker 1:It's lovely to use in count in tabletops. I've used it in conference room tables, and it's really fun because it's it's, like, thoughtful and, it's
Speaker 3:not a great application for kitchen counters just because it's so soft and also Another big hit, more in the nineties, was travertine. You're getting a lot of man made looks of what looks like travertine. Part of that is because, again, it's a very soft, you're going to have actual little holes or crevice in the style stone, I'm sorry, in the travertine. Typically used for flooring. Though your installers will fill those holes in with grout.
Speaker 3:And because stone breeds, you know, it moves around, that grout will come out. So homeowners think that their travertine's falling apart, which it's not, it's the grout that was used to fill in those holes. And then another thing that's popular, but it's a little more popular, I think on historically correct homes, because it was kind of the one thing that was used besides that tile and grout that we were talking about is soapstone. Oh yeah. So it's very beautiful.
Speaker 3:It has a little bit of a buttery or kind of leather finish to it. There is maintenance to that. Again, you need to oil that. You'll continue to oil it every night until you get the look that you're going for. But another great product as well.
Speaker 3:Just has some beautiful, it's usually going to be in a darker green kind of dark hunter green, little bit of white veining going through depending on the piece that you brought in. But again, it's becoming a little bit popular. We do make at Cosentino a man made look of soapstone, that maintenance, but you have the durability. So I do get some requests for that, but I typically will see it in areas where they're older homes that they're trying to be historically correct with.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That makes sense. And you mentioned just now leather finish. And another change that I've seen in recent years in the surface is in the surface texture of slabs. Marble and granite used to have a uniformly reflective shiny surface in the marketplace.
Speaker 1:Now we have options of honed material, which is matte surface, and then leather finish, which feels like polished, but without that heavy shine. And my clients are gravitating to it, materials that are either matte or less shiny. What are you seeing and what's driven that process? We're
Speaker 3:as well. With that leather, you kind of get a little bit of a texture, not a lot, but just a tiny bit, and you still get a little bit of a semi sheen or semi shine. I think what's driving bringing in that honed and the texture versus a pipe gloss or polish, I think we can contribute a lot to the pandemic. Think about, I talk about it anymore, but we were stuck in our homes for weeks and and realized, you know, I went outside a lot. I set up a little home office when we couldn't leave outside with my computer because I loved the nature and the greenery and the texture, plants all over my home.
Speaker 3:You know, it's, It's going back to earth and mother nature. Yeah, organic. Extractured, when you think about it, you see a rock outside, it's not shiny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:Not honed. It's matte. So I think that's what's really feeding that trend of having just a little bit of calmness and peace ness in our home. You're getting a lot more of man made surfaces versus natural stone. Natural stone's beautiful and it has its purpose and people who adore it, I do as well.
Speaker 3:But I think just that calmness of what a home or a slightly textured brings because
Speaker 1:of That's an interesting perspective because it is true that in the last maybe eight or ten years, there's always been a little bit of a contrasting texture available in only a few specific tones. But now, really, I would say half of the materials that I'm seeing have an option of being either matte or leather, as well as the same material and shiny. And it's so interesting to see how different they look. And it's just a matter of Well, think
Speaker 3:about eight years ago, concrete counters were becoming popular a little bit, you know, with some of the TV shows and things like that, and that's typically going to be honed. I think it kind of led itself into what we all experienced the last couple of years, three years, realized, you know, our homes don't work for us. They we don't care for them. It was nice to get that beautiful living room set, but when you had to sit in there, it wasn't as peaceful as we needed. So I think bringing in that honed in that texture really helps our inner spirit.
Speaker 3:Know? Because we used to
Speaker 1:I that you brought up concrete. I wasn't gonna go there, but I did a lot of work on the coast of Mexico for a long time, and that is a primary countertop surface there. And I just love it. I mean, you can get a myriad of colors can be mixed and you can do a brush surface or or a smooth high gloss finish or this kind of beautiful lustrous low sheen finish. And I think it's a great option.
Speaker 1:I don't find it easy to find fabricators here to do the work. So it tends to you want it to be less expensive, but it's not because the fabrication still isn't common.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, I think we're so used to just go grabbing a slab out of the yard.
Speaker 1:I know. I know. Which is why I love slabs. We'll talk about man made in little while, but yeah, I love slabs that imitate concrete, is interesting. So I've seen the pricing of materials shift through the years.
Speaker 1:Early on, marble was the highest priced material with granites in general more affordable. But now with quartzite in the marketplace, marble's feeling more reasonable, and granite is actually a really cost efficient solution. What is driving the factor of pricing in the natural stone materials industry? So taking out transportation costs, let's just take that out. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Part of it is the 02/1930 initiative where we need to be more sustainable and more green. And that also means not just the cars we drive and producing our own electricity. When you think about pulling natural stone out of the earth, we are depleting and damaging the planet. So there has been guidelines put in place that the companies that are coring this natural stone out of the earth, that they're being sustainable, that they are considering the planet so they can only pull so much out of that quarry. It is monitored.
Speaker 3:And then that quarry needs to be put back as best as it can into maybe a park or some sort of resource. So that one hundred years from now, we don't have these huge craters in the earth because we pulled all this natural stone out of the planet. So I think some of that factor has brought into the price also popularity if they want nothing but quartzite and they think it's the hottest trend even around for millions of years. So I think the health and safety of our planet is playing into that a little bit. In the 90s, we were just destroying the earth in 80s by pulling out all this granite and marble to put into our homes and not realizing what we were doing.
Speaker 3:So, you know, as humans, we've learned from our mistakes and we're hopefully looking forward. Also, you know, price, you're going to have people that are pulling out not great quality kind of remnants that some of those other companies would not be using. And they're also not taking into consideration the planet. So that'll lower price point. But as a consumer, you want to think, is this where I want to be buying?
Speaker 3:I know we all like to save money and we like to get a good deal. But what's going to be here for our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren when working with companies that are pulling out any type of product or producing any type
Speaker 1:of product? So when I we're gonna talk about man made products in great depth in a little while, but when I lead my clients into the process, they want to believe that man made products are going to be less expensive. That is not in general true necessarily? How does that work?
Speaker 3:If you're looking at solid color, so when you think about man made, you know, we can create the concrete counters, you know, yes, it's supposed to be if you know what you're doing. But when you look at as we get that beautiful veining and get as close of a look to a natural stone, price is going to go up. Also depending on the not so much the thickness of your counter, but how well that product is made fabrication could go up. So there's a couple of factors into that. You can get some great price points with a look of like a Carrera or Calcutta and not break the bank and still get that look of natural stone without and being comparable pricing.
Speaker 3:But the more pattern and look to that man made product could affect the cost. So
Speaker 1:very much like the natural stone market, there are going to be a range of pricing depending on where it comes from, how it got there, how long it's been in the showroom, all kinds of factors. And the man made is also gonna have a very similar for different reasons, but a similar range. So there's a lot of shopping involved. Correct. And I
Speaker 3:think for the most part, whether it's natural or man made, the more pattern and variation will bring up that price. With natural stone, when you get those really pretty blues and exotic, there's not a lot that they can pull out of that. You know, that doesn't make, you know, if not every ground is covered with that underneath. So that's kind of a rare gem when they're Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1:So interestingly, you know, years ago, before we were calling the material quartzite that has a lot of beautiful blues and greens and, you know, real color, purple veins. Whenever I was walking a client through a showroom and we saw a lot of blue and they were attracted to it, I would be like, don't even go there because that is a budget stopper right there. Let's, you know, let's move turnover here. But now, actually there is a so even though it's a little bit more expensive a material, it's a really good value if you want those colors because it's not as high as it was comparatively when it was called either marble or granite. Correct.
Speaker 1:It's interesting. Yeah. So now I have a lot of clients using some beautiful pale blue rivers of material right now. Yeah. So we've been talking about solid surfaces as used in countertops in kitchens and bathrooms.
Speaker 1:What are the other uses for natural solid surfaces in our homes? So with natural stone or with any of the product,
Speaker 3:on the inside of the home, can do floors, walls, counters. Depending on the manufacturer. If they can go to a very thin panel, then you can also clad your cabinet doors, clad your interior doors. You know, it's a big look now to have full walls natural stone going throughout the house. So really anywhere and everywhere.
Speaker 3:Not all product can, as far as man made can go outdoors, natural sandstone can go outdoors. But keep in mind, it's you're not gonna seal the natural stone if you have it on the floors or on a fireplace outside. So it's gonna patina. It's gonna do what it's supposed to do.
Speaker 1:It will be affected by the sun. Age with time.
Speaker 3:By elements because natural stone is porous, it breathes. So it's gonna absorb anything that landed on it. Any too much rain landing in one area, maybe under patio, it's not. So you have to consider that with what you're putting out there. Constantino does make a solid surface called Depton that's perfect for outdoors and it's resistant.
Speaker 3:So it's not gonna fade. It does not need to be sealed. So there's a lot of product out there, whether it's man made or natural, but just take into consideration where it's going. Even with natural stone, and I know we'll get into this in a bit, and we can go further, but when you have natural stone on your counters, you do need to seal that. But you have to keep in mind, it typically only seals the top of the counter.
Speaker 3:We have dishwashers that the doors pop open while they're drying and that steam comes out and sometimes you'll get discoloration on that counter that's right on top of that dishwasher because the bottom part of the counter is not sealed.
Speaker 1:So,
Speaker 3:you know, people, clients will start to complain what's going on with my, you know, I have it sealed every year, every six months, but why do I keep having this change? It's yellowing or it's discoloring or it's darker in this area and it's because you have high temperature of that appliance coming out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And the
Speaker 3:stone's not sealed.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Where else that happens is I I have a lot of I love to use slab materials as walls and showers and walls of fireplaces and things like that where it is it can be affected by heat and it can be affected by the water. And what I do explain to clients is, and I bring them to my own travertine shower to show them if I have to, is it will the pooling of the water will make it naturally get deeper. But what I actually I love because it looks organic. So it has this beautiful darker tone, and that diminishes as it goes up the wall where it's not gonna be affected by anything but a little bit of steam, but they have to understand that.
Speaker 1:And Yeah. So I don't think it means that you don't use it, but it they just have to know that in ten years, you know, maybe four years, it's it's gonna show depreciatively different.
Speaker 3:And that's the great thing about the man made because not all of us can accept things changing. You know, we think that the way we bought it, that's the way it's gonna stay. And with natural stone, it's mother nature. So it's gonna do what it needs to do. So that's where man made can come in for those homeowners that just can't accept that change.
Speaker 3:Evolution.
Speaker 1:I actually am drawn to it. Yeah. That's a great role that we're in
Speaker 3:that we have so many options. It's no more that four by four tile that you have
Speaker 1:to do. Do. Yeah. So, and be getting back to the sustainability factor. Over the years, it's been interesting for me personally to see how specific colors and patterns of natural material have come in and out of availability.
Speaker 1:And this speaks to the question of sustainability. As the sources go deeper into the mountains, the colors and patterns change. And I've witnessed, you know, many directions of colors and patterns and textures that have kind of worked themselves out of the marketplace?
Speaker 3:Again, just trends, what we're going for. Maybe it's getting way too expensive for them to pull those beautiful gems of slabs coming out. They're sitting in their slab yards way too long. So again, just depends on trends and how things are changing, how consumers are changing.
Speaker 1:And and are there any innovative ways for them to speed up the process of creation of natural stone? I mean, is there anything like that going on? Mean, if anyone would know, Constantino would be at the
Speaker 3:Man made. So earth millions of years, you can produce a man made slab in about four hours.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is, you know, so that's why people think that's less expensive. Instead of thousands of years, it's only, you know, a certain amount of manageable time. Yeah. So that's, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:For us and research and all of that, we can get the same look by doing these steps. But you're gonna get the more, when it comes to man made, the more natural look by the companies that are spending the time. Because when you think about a man made slab, think about when we first got linoleum and the artificial wood or even like plywood. It's essentially a photo of that natural stone or a photo of that natural piece of wood that we impose onto that surface that we're making, whether again it's linoleum or ceramic or anything like that. But with the advances in technology and actually bringing in natural stone and recycled glass and porcelain into some of the solid surfaces, you can get amazing product that again, really looks like natural stone without the maintenance and upkeep of natural stone.
Speaker 1:That is very true. So, Julie, as we phase out of talking about the natural stones before we go into another episode where we talk more in-depth about man made, which is just endless possibilities, what am I not thought to ask? Is there anything else that we should keep in mind when we're shopping for our countertops?
Speaker 3:Keep in mind, I think when we start looking at our homes as a consumer, what am I doing in that space? What do I need the space to do for me? And can I accept my counters, my surface is changing if I'm going with natural stone? Keeping in mind the maintenance, also the health and safety of the occupants. So if you're having to seal something every year or every six months, you know, that product or chemicals that we're bringing in, is it going to make us sick?
Speaker 3:Is it a year, you know, six months later, we're cutting onto that surface and or the kids pick something off, even though the counter is clean, are they putting any additional chemicals into their bodies? So just keeping that in mind and how we're going to use it, who's going to use it? Do I have chefs coming in? Is it me? Do I not cook?
Speaker 3:Do I go out and eat all the time? And I want a beautiful piece for when my friends come over and family. Or do I need something to be durable that I can cook and leave chicken on and not worry and have the kids do homework on the other side while I'm prepping a meal. And so there's a lot of factors to think about, but there's such great product out there that you can really hone in and get exactly what you were looking for.
Speaker 1:Hone in. Good. I get it. Alright. So when we realized that Julie and I had so much to talk about, we decided to split the topic into two two episodes.
Speaker 1:I really enjoyed exploring the nuances of natural stone and kind of gave us introduction into man made solid surfaces that we're gonna continue the conversation with Julie in the next episode. You can find more information about solid surfaces at Constantino.com, and you can find Julie at on Instagram at at julie arsuleh and on Facebook at j arsuleh to continue the conversation. And we would love to hear from you with comments and questions on for any of our guests at www.FromDisasterToDreamHome.com.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us on this episode of From Disaster to Dream Home, the podcast that takes you inside the home building and rebuilding process. Each week, we bring you time tested practices and the latest trends through conversations with top professionals in the building industry. You can find other episodes of From Disaster to Dream Home at ewnpodcastnetwork.com, as well as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Audible, and most other major podcast streaming services. Need design help? You can contact us or find out more about our guests at fromdisastertodreamhome.com.
Speaker 2:Until next time, let us guide and inspire you as you create the home of your dreams.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. This is the EWN Podcast Network.