Personally if I had the access to the marble I would take it! Traditional concerns regarding bleach spill etc are not that relevant these day s. If you keep these items like laundry powders and cleaning chemicals off the bench and in the cupboard they shouldn't cause you much trouble. I keep all mine in a caddy that keeps them off surfaces and easy to move around the house and store in the cupboard. How many of us hand colour or hand bleach anything anymore. Most laundry troughs these days are too small to make these jobs even possible. Or if you are a craft lover do these things in the outdoors or garage. Hand washing is usually with very gentle detergents on smaller items and usually done with care. If the laundry is a chore make your work area a pleasure to be in!

I actually had a marble counter in a flat I lived in in Europe for a while. I knew nothing about maintenance so just treated it like any other hard surface, and it looked fine (and I wasn't the first person to live in that flat, I assure you). It's more common in Europe, and not so much trendy there as classic. But Europeans aren't quite as finicky as North Americans and Australians seem to be about flawless and unblemished finishes.

Both. Depending on the look you’re after. For me, it always the lighter.

Haresh, I don't know what country the original poster was talking about, but this is the Australian website, and any answers to your question would probably need to know the city too. It's best to start your own question instead of adding it to a very old thread. If you need to, you can change the website country at the bottom of the screen. If you are in Australia, think about what suits the climate where you are and not just what you are used to. I can understand what the original poster said about wanting marble. However I have seen increasing numbers of sales listings in my city with marble throughout the house including bedrooms and I feel sad because although it is obviously a habitual cultural choice it can affect resale in this particular climate. I thought I'd talk about that because I just saw another listing and straighaway I thought brr, we're going into autumn and that's so cold in bedrooms. Even a nice timber or laminate is better if you want a hard floor. If you are in the same situation as the original poster with "termite and humidity problems in the country [they] are living" please disregard.