Countertops: Let's Marble at the Beauty of Marble

Hey, Counties (that's our nickname for our fans)!

How are you doing? How’s that isolation going? We hope you’re healthy and safe. Welcome to our official episode 1 of Counter Programming with Shira & Arielle. Last week, we released our intro episode. It was a chance to get to know us and why we're doing this Corona-inspired podcast. As always, each episode of Counter Programming will focus on a counter of some sort. In this episode, we're starting our series on counter*tops.* Today, we cover MARBLE.

Find out how we *really* feel about marble countertops -- hint: it ain't lookin' good for marble.

You can reach us by email to tell us how YOU feel about marble - counterprogrammingshiraarielle@gmail.com. You can also reach us on Instagram - @counterprogrammingpod.

SEND US PICTURES OF YOUR COUNTERTOPS! WE’LL SHARE THEM ON OUR SOCIAL MEDIAS!

In this episode, we share what we're up to during isolation. Arielle made avocado bread (which is apparently a thing). Shira and her roommate, Jenna, made steak tacos using a muffin tin(!) and finished off their tequila. Of course, Tiger King has been on our minds.

Background facts on countertops:

1. The first countertops were made of stone and wood

2. Soapstone and slate were abundant in the Northeast so they were brought into the kitchen to be used for counters

3. Marble was initially used because pastry chefs liked rolling their dough on it

4. Metals such as stainless steel and nickel were used starting in the early 1900s and then became more popular

5. Stainless steel and laminate became popular in the 1940s

Thank you oldhouseweb.com for these facts!

Let's marble at marble:

It's a metamorphic rock that's commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. 

Notable Landmarks Made with Marble:

1. Taj Mahal

2. The Pantheon

3. The Washington Monument

4. The Supreme Court Building

5. The Parthenon (sort of - the foundation is limestone but the tiles are marble)

Benefits of a marble countertop:

- The look - it's beautiful, it's warm

- Marble has a "nice character"

- Each piece is unique

- It has elegant veining and a sophisticated appearance

Disadvantages of a marble countertop:

- It's a porous material

- It can stain

- It's soft so it can chip and scratch

- It's expensive (more expensive than wood, laminate, and tile)

- Low resistance to heat

Would Shira and Arielle get marble in their future kitchens? NO.

Come back next week as we explore another countertop. 

Thanks for tuning in! Leave us a review on Apple or a comment on Castbox.

Thank you to Daniel Tureck, our engineer.

Thank you to Caio Slikta, our logo designer.

Our music is called Tennessee Hayride and it’s by Jason Shaw. 

Transcript

spk_0:   0:08
hi and welcome to counterprogramming with Shira and Ariel. I'm Shira. I'm Ariel. This show exists because we're social distancing and physical distancing and because we think that you like us need a break from the constant barrage of Scary Corona virus news. So we're bringing you counter programming an alternative. All the grim Kobe 19 news. I feel like we should

spk_1:   0:36
mention the elephant in the room that is the size of an American bulldog. If you hear any funky noise is, it's because overnight I became the unwilling semi owner of ah, huge white woman bulldog. Her name is Bailey. You exploiting how that happened? Yes, I can. So I've been walking dogs for Wag, which is one of those service is that connects owners to Walker's. I love walking dogs. Every once in a while, they have the opportunity for you to baby sit a dog overnight, and I went to baby sit this dog overnight. But the specifications said that I would not have toe have her sleep at my house and I would not have sleep in her house. But then, when I was at the owner's house, feeding her and walking her, the guy told me that he was in the hospital and he didn't have timeto specify what he wanted to say. So he does need me tow. Watch the dog overnight. So I did have the dog overnight last night and I haven't heard from the owner because he's in the hospital with a crazy eye infection. And I'm just hoping that he's okay. Number one and number two that, like I don't unwillingly become the owner of the stock. She's very sweet, but she is not. She doesn't fit my lifestyle. I'd say She walks like 10 steps and then is completely winded. And, yeah, I was having trouble breathing. Yet you can see, like her know her nose is so chapped because she's just like, you know, when you have a cold and you're like, you have to breathe through your mouth so your lips get chapped. It's like that knows, and I feel like that's just what happens when you have been breathing uncomfortably for nine years of your life. However old she is just nine, I have no idea. But that's the thing about this. I have no idea about some of the very essential facts of her life. But anyway, anyway, she's gonna be yours. She could be mine. Well, I just wanted to give that little disclaimer for why there might be some very heavy panting in the room and some lapping up with water. It's, Ah, it's this dog. If you hear other heavy panting, it's because I just went on a run and I'm a little winded because I ran for the first time with a mask. On my whole, I'd be safer, and it made breathing really difficult. I'm not sure. I mean, the guy obviously want to do it if that's the suggested safety method. But I might just be working out inside and not running. I feel that well, good for you for getting outside. Let's let's welcome the people to our first episode off the Well, guys, welcome to our first episode in the spirit of counterprogramming. We're starting off our first Siris on counter and abs. I feel like we said that at the same time, we'll be covering Marvel O today if you're just joining us for the first time, Welcome to the show. Shira and I are both highly anxious people. And the reason we started the show is because we wanted to work on a project that might take our minds off of the whole Corona virus. Panic. So here we are Counter program e for getting better or worse at that, I think it may be works. We're gonna be covering all sorts of counters. But for the next few weeks, countertops have an idea for a countertop that we should cover tweet at us. I'm at Shi Shi Mosque and I'm at Ariel this and that before we jump into the marble of it all. How's your isolation going? Aerial Things are not too bad. I don't know if I mentioned this in our intro, but I am actually loving isolation times. I feel like there's endless possibilities when you're stuck in your own house. I've done so many things. I learned the dance to Footloose. I cooked an avocado bread, which I didn't know existed until I had extra avocados. And then I Googled Is avocado bread a thing? It is you, the avocado bread. Very good question. It's just basically bread that you add avocado, too. And I even did it without an egg. I did it with peanut butter instead, it was pretty good. You cooked the avocado into the bread? Yeah. Basically, what you do is you know, you put this flower and all the stuff on the side, and then on the other bowl, you do like eggs and, you know, some sort of milk, And then you put the avocado, mash it, and then you add lemon and salt and sugar. Very weird, but it came out really good, actually. Don's delicious. Yeah, but you can fasten it. I wish I could send you a piece, but that's that's how I've been doing. How about you? We're pretty good here. A swell Jenna, the roommate and I are trying to make things fun tonight. We're having a Mexican themed party for the two of us. More gonna get for going addressed off and wear wigs because you know how I feel about wigs. I love. And then we're going Thio. I found this cool recipe on the caramelized flog. She made it grow like steak tacos, but using like a muffin tin to make each of the tacos instead of having like a taco holder. And then we're gonna finish off our tequila. We bought some like peach juice. Um, we're thing about blending that up. We have frozen peaches, too, and we're gonna sit down and watch some Tiger King because we are only chipsets in and who it's gonna be an eye. That is a great plan for your night. You have to make it fun. We also had a productive day. We hung up art, which we've been saying we wanted to do for the past 2.5 years that in this apartment, we've had the frames. We've had the pictures in the frame sitting on our floor for a year and 1/2 and we loved your virgin after your thing. That's what I'm saying. You and I are Personalities thrive in quarantine. Yeah, you know, I'm looking my best life. I actually I think I'm happier than I was before. My only issue is that in New York, Look, even when I was running today, there were I wasn't running in the middle of the street to about we'd meet Super Bowl. It's really hard to be outside here without like and stay six feet apart from other people. So that's my only challenge. That, like I'm not seeing the sun as much as I would like to Yeah, for fear that you're gonna just smell other people and maybe get droplet it on. Yeah, we don't want that. And the other thing I have to say that I hate is that people are dying and are sick. Yeah, I feel like I hurt more. It's terrible. And the uncertainty is a little hard. Yeah, Yeah, I'm not in the limits on our end, but I am trying to keep morale high in and our hope just cause I don't think there's another alternative. True. Yeah, well, the people are here. The hopefully our listeners air here because they're super interested in countertops. Welcome. All you counter top teams, once you've been through it. Yeah. Counties decided, right? Yes, counties, That's who you are. If you love us, your counties and your job background. Yes, exactly. I love counties. I love entities of ah state divisions. It's so exciting. People are here for marble. The people are here for countertops. Let's jump into it. Let's talk about marble. Let's talk about it. But since this is our first countertop episode, we figured it would be a good idea to give you some background fax on countertops and how they've been used throughout society throughout US society. All that kind of stuff. Sure. Do you want to start it off? Sure. So, Ariel, I just learned that the first countertops were made of stone and wood and that makes sense. It makes sense. Yeah, easy to come by. They in olden times, the houses, they kind of surrounded central fire central fireplace in the house. And they weren't, you know, countertops as we know them today, obviously. But Stone would make sense. We're all on board. But things began to change in the early 18 hundreds. In wealthier homes, we started to see marble, fine woods metal in, like the pantry and serving area, but not in the actual cooking area. It makes sense. So let me just get this straight. So in one room, it would be the marble in the fine woods, and that's where people eat. Yeah, I think that's like they wanted to show off that they were rolling in the dough. Yeah, of course, will not enroll and the dough because that happening once in the in the private kitchen area, usually and if they were with wealthier families than it might have been with servants or, unfortunately, slaves or other people that were doing the hard work for them. Definitely know. I found that soap shown and sleet were very abundant in the Northeast, so they were brought into the kitchen to be used for counters. I have never heard of soapstone. I also don't know it's obsessiveness through the goods Rio. We've seen soapstone before, Ariel. It's like black with, like a very light gray like crackling going through. It's very gorgeous. Alright, so soapstone abundant with slate in the Northeast Superfund. Um, then they were brought into kitchens to be used for counter supercool. What's next? So now we're talking marble who has the knish use because pastry chefs like trolling their dough on it. And I think granite well, which will talk about another week, came on the scene for a similar reason. I think it's like nice and smooth, so they control the dough on it. Okay, Yes, Oh, pastry chef. So marble came around when pastry chefs were like we want we want to have a good spot in order to to make our beautiful pastries so marble and granite makes sense. Yeah, I still even though I have a granite countertop, I will never look. Roll something right on my countertop. I always I mean, maybe you need to clean it were frequently if I think my own countertop is did you dirty? But no, I'm with you on that. Use a cutting board, use a plate. Put something down there. But it's true, I guess if marble and granite were originally used to roll right on, there is a reason for that. Yeah, it's probably better that thing, like a cutting board or something that isn't a smooth surface. But I'm too no rest, and I don't feel like leaving my apartment that frequently. No, no, thank you. Um, what else? Let's go to Let's learn a little bit about medals. All right. Metals such as stainless steel and nickel were used starting it looks like in like the early 19 hundreds and then slowly became popular throughout the 19 hundreds. Uhm, stainless steel really came about in the mid 19 hundreds around the same time as the laminate countertop. Ooh, let me say something about that about I'm reading here through our fax that stainless steel became popular around the 19 forties, which is right around the baby boom right when World War Two ended. So I'm guessing it's because it was super abundant and easy to produce. And this is around the time that the American suburbs were coming about and they probably needed toe mast manufacturer kitchens and so stainless steel became pretty easy to do that. Or Laminate came on the scene for the same reason after World War Two because people just want, like, one of their kitchens, toe look a certain way, and they needed them like to be quick and easy to build with all those of the suburbs coming about, It makes a lot of sense. Do you feel like we gave the people the county's some adequate background with which to get started? Oh, yeah, I feel like I know a lot more about counters now. All right, well, let's shout out our sources. This information comes to us from old house web dot com. Shout out to old house web dot com. I feel like we're gonna be using them a whole bunch throughout this series. Just want to make sure we shut him out. Never, I hear like something like old. Whatever. I can't not think of the old town road son. So good. Like what an incredible song it really is. Oh, wow. Awesome. Can you tell me more about marble now? Yeah, I really can't. I'm so excited about it. In my opinion, Marble is the most beautiful. But let me let you in on a secret. I don't think I know the difference between marble and granite. So maybe I will all right. From trustee trustee Wikipedia. Marble is the metamorphic rock composed of re crystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. In geology, the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone, but its use in stone masonry more broadly encompasses unmet amorphous limestone. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. And that's what we're really gonna be focusing on. Not so much the sculpture, but the building material. You know, in our kitchens, there's a lot of marble in a lot of different notable landmarks. We've got a lot of marble, and this, I thought would be a fun game. Shira, I'm gonna That's mostly what we're gonna be focusing on here. Is that marble? Not so much. The sculpture aspect of it, but the building aspect of it, um you know, obviously we're focusing on the countertop part of it, But I thought it'd be fun to let the people, the counties, and on a little game that we thought of so notable landmarks. A lot of notable landmarks are made with marble. And I thought of the game that we could play. Shira. Okay, I'm ready. Okay, good. So I'm gonna read a list of remarkable landmarks, or shall we say re marble Kabul landmarks, and you'll tell me if they're marble or not. Does that sound good? Sounds greed.

spk_0:   14:02
Okay. Number one, the pyramids at Giza. I don't think they're made of marble and stone. They're made of, I think limestone, but yeah, and limestone is super porous, so it wouldn't really make sense as a countertop. You ready for the next one? Very good. Passover one. As weird as Passover is fast approaching. Yes, Very good. Always shout out to the pyramids. Always. Okay. Never quite well built. Next one's the Taj Mahal. Maybe. Sound answer. I guess I'll go. I'll say yes for that. Correct. The Taj Mahal is made out of marble. Very good next one is the Great Wall of China. I've never been there, but I don't believe it's a stone. Also not marble. Yeah, that's correct. And let me just ask, Have you been to the top of the hall and the pyramids of Giza? No, obviously not. But I just decided that you were gonna say that you've never been to the Great Wall. Well, that seems like Well, I guess it's hot ball people go to. And also people go to the parents, but show I've been closer to the parents. Okay? Contain. All right. All right. Great Wall of China not made out of marble. But let's go to the next one. The Pantheon gonna say no for that one. Incorrect sheer of buzzer sound. Um, yeah. No, The Pantheon is made out of marble. What about the Leaning Tower of Pisa? No, no, that's correct. Good job. Good job. Thank you. This one's fun. Back to U. S soil. The Washington Monument? Yes, yes, she's correct. What are all monuments made up like Are all monuments? Marble? You mean like, But I wonder how many monuments in the US are made out of marble? Okay. Shall we do a quick search. Quick search. Two decades, the Supreme Court building is as well. That's a good one. That's another one I found. But I don't know if that's if I didn't do such a Nintendo search, you know. Yeah, I do. But you know what? I'm great. It's okay. Even know I'm grateful to even know that RBG and all of her glory sits in a marble throne. That is what she deserves. Yes. Freaking love. Marble. God, Are you ready for the next one and the last one? Nervous Parthenon. I'll say yes for that one for this one. It's actually a trick question. It was a few more facts for this one. It was completed in 4 38 BC. And the foundation was built on limestone. But the columns and tiles were crafted from Pantelic. Marble. So you you didn't trip? May I tricked you? I guess I like I would give you. I would give you a passing grade on that one. You did a great job. It felt like earth. Science

spk_1:   16:46
can. Did you take that in eighth grade? Sixth grade? Oh, you're more advanced than I was. It's actually the class that I realized that I needed glasses. So I don't remember anything from that class. Except for that, I had a teacher who was, like, very strict. And I guess he would be talking. And I would want to seem interested, so I would shake my head like an agreement. And then one time, he yelled at me for doing that. And that's all we're gonna remember from the class. Wow. No, You know, I remember taking the regions exam, but that's it. Yeah. Didn't stick with me. I guess the actual source material. That was a great game, Shira. I'm sure we're gonna have a lot of games in the future. We'll try to come up with games for every single one of our countertop episodes. But let's get back to marble countertops specifically as we know, they're super popular in the US. But this one website that I found Mace on dip Axe has an article called Should you use marble in the kitchen? And here are some important cons that I found. So number one, the person who was considering getting marble in her kitchen said that you know, one of the one of the reasons she didn't want to is because it's a very porous material and therefore it can stain. It's also very soft so it can scratch it and chip it can. Things can get etched in it. And then the third Khan was that it's expensive. It's more expensive than wood laminate or tile. Honestly, the first to Colin's really resonate with me. I would not want to deal with that. And I was like designing my own kitchen. It would be like I would be so nervous to spill things and then, like, you know, when you're writing a list on the counter like that happened on my parents, they have a wood kitchen table and we, like, have like, things etched into it by accident. That's kind of good for this kind of good for history. Reasons for your family. Yeah, I don't know if we need every shopping list, like in her kitchen table of like there. It'll it has, like cracks in the table on purpose. It's which look like old and rustic, and there is probably food from 15 years. Oh, uh, it's bad. It's really hard to clean it. Sanada fall, but stay Okay, but what are the pros. What are the pros for having a marble kitchen? And by the way, let me just say learning this. You know, I never thought I would learn this much about countertops. I never thought I'd do this much of a deep dive if it were, me and I were designing my own kitchen from the looks of it. Right now, I would want to go with what would make the most sense in the long term. And right now, while Marble is beautiful, I don't know that I would go with it. That's now. That's now we have done to the pros yet all right. From the same article, this author says she chose marble over courts for two main reasons. One is the look, and one is the price. Ah, she says. It's a beautiful, it's warm, and the character of the natural stone gets her every time. Um, that's fair. I don't think would work for me, but I'm so happy she found the right counter for her. I feel like now would be a good time for us to describe the look of countertops because this is obviously an auditory medium. So let me pull up marble countertop images. So most people know this, but I'll just describe. It comes in a variety of different colors, but I'm looking right now at a grayish slash white, with veins of similar colors running throughout. It's got a few flecks, sometimes of what looks to be sort of sparkles, but not quite sparkles. It's very smooth. It looks extremely clean, and it's a slab, probably about six inches thick. Share anything to add to that? I

spk_0:   20:16
think you described it to you. Go play

spk_1:   20:18
now. I'm seeing a much darker one over here up because it's so marble way Don't. We're purists here. The natural stone has elegant, vain ing. I like that as a verb of Ai Ning, and it has a sophisticated appearance, which I definitely agree with. I don't know if I need my kitchen to be like so sophisticated looking. Yeah, I need you to be functional. Not that I'm designing a kitchen right now. I'm just I'm really just thinking ahead now that I'm learning so much. Yeah, it's important to be planning for our futures. Um, what did the Home Depot say when you did a little research well on Home Depot's website. It said that low impact and stained durability for marble and low resistance to heat. That's as well if you're a hooker, if your big coker and you're taking hot things out of the oven and placing them on your marble countertops, that might be something you want to consider. Yeah, so I would say when I started this episode, Marble. When I started this, the idea for this podcast I thought, Marv Marble is one of the first things that came to my head. I don't know why. I think it's just it's very abundant. It's in a lot of people's kitchens. So I thought I definitely wanted to do an episode on this, and I'll say, even at the beginning of this episode, I was pumped to discover marble toe, learn about the intricacies of it, the history of it all, that kind of stuff. I don't necessarily feel like at the end of this episode, like I need to have marble in my kitchen. How about you? I would agree with that statement. I have now also learned that my current kitchen countertop is definitely granite, not marble D. Oh, wow. I'm so glad that you were able to come to that conclusion through this research. Yeah, they may have learned much. Well, I think now we kind of tease this at the end of last episode, but we definitely wanna share with our county's about our own countertops. So, Shira, please tell me about your countertop. And if you'd like to relocate so that you can see it, we'll have a picture right here. Oh, amazing. One woman, please. So mine. I know I sent you this picture. It's very it's a base. Color is sand, but then it has almost like waves of love black and white and dark brown running through it. That's how I would describe it. That's beautiful. What about you? I also sent you this picture just so everybody knows we sent pictures to each other after our last episode because we felt like it was important that we knew what our countertops looked like. And what is mine look like? Minus I would call it black. A black background, maybe a dark blue, maybe a dark gray. I'm not really sure. I've never been that good with describing color. And then it looks like there's flecks of white and gray and kind of looks like a shiny, shiny flex Every once in a while, I truly don't know if it's granite or if it's marble. But I think when we next week move on to our next, our next episode will be able to tell. We'll learn more of the differences between marbles and also I realized that I could just ask my landlord. I'm gonna try to do this investigative dial and not ask my landlord. Yeah, use your own detective counter senses. If you check out our Twitter, you can see a picture of me sitting on my countertop. And Shira, if you want to send me a picture of you on your countertop, also post that in the same post. And that could be a fun way for people to get to know us. And we can interact with our county's on Twitter. Yeah, maybe I'll almost run tonight in my wig. Ooh, fun. Anything else? Do we talk enough about marble? Do you think I don't think that's why he bartending? And I think all right way really

spk_0:   24:01
want to say thank you for tuning in to the show? We're glad that you came along for this ride as we uncovered some of the very important truths about marble countertops. And also we gave a little overview of countertops. In general, we feel like we've learned a lot. Shira Thio. Yeah, OK, good. So with this background, I feel like we're ready to move forward with our next countertop design. And what's that? Let's tell the people steal. You know, I'm gonna steal your heart with steel countertops. Yeah, that was good. That'll probably be the title of the next episode, Jr. So Yeah, Steele Steele is next. So if you like what you heard this time around, make sure you tune in next week when we talk about steel way. Hope you enjoyed some counter programming and that you're not too steeped in dread regarding Corona virus. And of course, that you're staying safe and healthy. Of course you can find this podcast wherever you listen. That's on cast box. Ankle Spotify, Really? Anywhere you can get in touch with us on Twitter to share your counterprogramming stories. Most importantly, we want to know about your countertops. Send those pictures. Those pictures, please. Where can they find you? I am on Twitter at Ariel this and that. That's a r i e l l e this and that. Shiro, what about you thinking? Find me on Twitter at Shi Shi Mosque s h I s h I m o s k way would love it if you left us a review on one of the places that you're listening to. This podcast. Like we said, you can listen to this podcast pretty much anywhere. There's tons of different podcast APS and most of those podcast APS have infrastructure in place that makes it so that you can let the podcast creators know what you think of their show on Apple. Obviously, you could leave a review on cast box. There is this great comments section where you could do that. You can also slide into RD ems on instagram or on Twitter. And then you can tell us really how you feel on instagram. I'm at Ari this and that. They are I this and that. Shiro, what about you on Instagram? I am at the exact same thing Is my twitter. She she mosque s h i s h i m o s gay. And we are thinking that we're gonna make an instagram account for this podcast. And so we'll announce that as soon as we have it. And so hopefully you'll find us there and slide into rdm Send us pictures. The whole nine yards. I think we have a few Thank you's. So we hope you join us next time. Few shout outs before we end the show. Thank you so much to Kaio Slicked up for designing our logo. You confined him on Instagram to see more of his designs at Kaio Slick. Tha that c a i o s l i k e t A. We also want to thank Daniel Turyk. He is the person behind making this episode so beautiful. He mixes, he masters, he engineers, he puts in all those funds sound effects. You can find him at robot slap dot com And Shira, since you found our amazing theme music, please tell us where you found it and what's it called? Our theme music is by Jason Shaw, and it's called Tennessee Hayride. We love it. It's we love it. It fits perfectly with Dr Can't wait to see you back here next week. On meantime, stay safe and healthy and wash your hands. Wash your hands and admire your countertops by Ariel by sheer abi counties by counties