Week 37.2: counterpoint

Blanco Maple (left) and Yukon Blanco (right).

On Saturday, we made another dreaded DirectBuy run to order our countertops.

Maybe we should quit complaining about DB, but we just can’t help but feeling like we’ve been taken for a ride. Maybe it’s because they rarely ever have what we’re looking for. Maybe it’s because we’ve managed to find a number of our pricier purchases for much less on Overstock.com or Amazon. Or maybe it’s the fact that, lately, our every shopping experience is soundtracked by the wistful strains of The Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over.

The Dude would not abide.

Still, in this instance, our DB membership did pay off… if only just a little bit. Although we still went over on our countertops budget, we were able to get our top choice for less than we could have anywhere else—Silestone® Quartz by Cosentino in Blanco Maple for the kitchen and Yukon Blanco for the downstairs bathroom.

From the Silestone site:

“Silestone offers the unique combination of built-in Microban® antimicrobial product protection, National Sanitation Foundation certification and Greenguard Indoor Air Quality certification.”

“Unlike granite countertops where microbes can penetrate the countertop surface if not properly sealed, Silestone Quartz countertops are non-porous, keeping microbes from penetrating the surface of your countertop (quartz is an engineered stone). And Silestone countertops are the only quartz countertops with Microban antimicrobial protection, which inhibits the growth of microbes such as odor-causing bacteria, mold and mildew.”

“Certifications by the National Sanitation Foundation and the Greenguard Environmental Institute mean Silestone is a Safer Surface for areas where food preparation takes place, while protecting the quality of your indoor air quality because it has low-to-no emission (off gassing) of toxic chemicals into the indoor environment.”

Cosentino N.A. is also a member of the U.S. Green Building Council—a non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation—and has outlined how building teams can benefit from and derive valuable LEED credits when Silestone Quartz surfaces are utilized.