Okay, so as expected the matt suede surface is more expensive, not sure how much yet but when the builder says price on application, I can imagine it will be a fair bit more. Anyway, we'll see but something to take into consideration I guess... In the meantime, I was going through my idea books and found the photo below, which I kind of forgot about but is one of my absolute favourite kitchens... the point is just like the photo, we too will have a wall cabinet in matt black, the back of the island in matt black and oak floor boards in a natural/textured matt finish... so now I'm thinking maybe too many matt surfaces, interestingly they have gone with a polished stone top which I think is reflecting the light nicely... Our floors...

When anything goes wrong it’s what is written on the paper that prevails. If the quotation you accepted says drop in and that is the supporting document then you’re out of luck. A total redo would be at your cost. You may be able to negotiate that they do it at a discount out of goodwill.

I have a top Mount double bowl sink in my kitchen with stone bench tops. I don’t think it looks cheap.... AND, the second unused hole is not just “filled” by the plumber, but a “faucet hole cover” is installed and will sit almost flush with the sink surround. If you have under mount sink in your kitchen, how are you going to have dishes draining, before immediately hand drying. You will have to put some kind of draining board on the STONE, and that will look cheap. But if under mount sinks are included in the build, then go with that. But they don’t include somewhere to place pots and pans after washing and before drying by hand. Because you have stated that you are only having a single bowl sink in the kitchen.

I have Neolith porcelain benchtops and splashbacks in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom (and full height sheets in the shower too) and benchtops in the living room. I have had no trouble and love it. I am not rough with it, but have found it very easy to maintain. My stonemason was adamant that I not have undermounted sinks (so the kitchen and laundry sinks are minimal thin edge top mounted and bathroom is a vessel sink). My stonemason also talked me out of having a shower niche. It is really important to have an experienced and talented stonemason for porcelain and to listen to them on what you should and should not do. I found that the experienced and confident stonemasons were actually significantly cheaper too as they were not padding their quotes to cover an expectation of ruining sheets on the cutting and get the most possible out of every sheet. I am in Melbourne and used Moorabbin Marble who were fantastic.