marble for secondary countertop

[pinstripeprincess]

i'm into the final phases of expanding my kitchen and have gone in a somewhat unconventional route and have some counter space on wheels. the wheels thankfully put them at about 30" in height and i think the top surface will make an ideal extra baking counter.

the top is 36"x 18" and i'm considering getting marble for its traditional uses.

are there any other surface types that are particularly ideal for baking/knead/rolling? i would like something that i could get as one whole piece (hate grout) and can get in a variety of colours (must be able to match with a slight off-white and a bold turquoise).

and what is the cheapest way to find the stuff? i'm hoping i can get it straight from a supplier to remove one middle man. i've been debating going to the Restores in toronto and getting salvaged pieces that i can try to get cut down. if anyone knows of a good dealer that would be fantastic! i was hoping i could work the cheap left over bits train since i don't need a long continuous piece like most counters.

[BJE]

Here on Cape Breton Island , Nova Scotia, we have a very exciting marble quarry. The company is called MacLeod Resources. They ship marble to all parts of the world. I recently went to see what they have available as I want to purchase a piece to use as a pastry and dough working area. They sell pieces either with finished rolled edges or just squared raw unfinished edges. The price for the unfinished edges is approximately $120 Canadian. If I remember correctly the rolled edge is around $200. Their marble is just beautiful with many different colours to choose from. Here is their web page and a email address if you would like to contact them.
www.canadianmarble.com.
email : [e-mail].

[BJE]

I would like to corect the web page that I posted . I tried it and it does not get to their home page. Here is the correct web page.
http://www.canadasmarble.com/home.htm

[mpalmer6c]

If the countertop will be used for anything other than bake goods, be aware that marble is more absorbent than, say, granite and thus stains easily unless cleaned quickly after spillls of such things as red wine..

[jfood]

jfood agrees that the boneyard of pieces at the local stone places is the best. you can probably find an unbelievablepiece of beautiful stone for this purpose.

[flourgirl]

I too went with some counter space on wheels. I love it because the carts roll away when I don't need them and opens up my floor space. It also meant that I had room for both a traditionaI height dining table as well as a stainless steel square bar height table with stools (instead of an island). I have one cart topped in granite and the other one is a butcher block. They're both great - just different. I particularly like the butcher block for when I make homemade pasta. Rolling out pasta dough on the wood gives the pasta added texture. Holds more sauce. :) I happen to really like the mix of surfaces - one of them will always work for whatever it is I'm trying to do.

[rtmonty]

We too went to the granite "boneyard" when putting a standup wet bar in our family room. It was a miscut piece that they almost gave away.

[pinstripeprincess]

how do i find these "boneyards"? just find a granite dealer/fabricator? should i ask them if they have a boneyard?

[Sherri]

Most recently, our granite fabricator had a "boneyard" of leftover pieces that he sold for $5 sq ft. Edge finishing etc was extra. I took great advantage of this bargain!

Many years ago, before life was stable in an "owned" house, I used a piece of marble on a rolling cart that I bought from a gravestone place. (It had a mistake on one side but that didn't matter to me since I only needed one side for pastry.)