Location is everything, I do love my house though but I often think if it wasn't where it is would I still love it as much and find its flaws quirky..and the answer is no, but it is where it is and it is where I want to be..so love, love, love

Boris Pasternak's Dr Zhivago, because Russian Revolution. Hollywood told me it was the "greatest love story ever told", and I keep believing those damn hollywood lies.

Looks like a difficult one, we have this issue sometimes with a tiling equivalent. If the works done before hand are not straight, flat etc, it can be very difficult and even damaging to try and install something flat over the top (benchtop, tiles etc). We see dodgy plastering jobs that get tiled onto, it is virtually impossible to do a good job if the base work is off. Smaller tiles will show obviously and larger ones will have a great risk of breaking with these small voids under. Therefor the tradie installing the 'aesthetic' aspect cops the brunt of mistakes made by the trades before hand. It can thus be difficult to blame them for this, as it doesn't necessarily indicate their poor workmanship. However, if you are paying a professional to do what it takes to complete the job in a high quality manner, then there is always a way to fix this ($$$). If it was going to be a foreseeable problem, and cost you more money, he could have asked you if you would like him to make more expensive changes to achieve the perfect finish, or continue as is at the risk of it being sub-par finish. That should have been your choice to make on consolidation. So it is a tricky one for sure! Are the cabinets below new or is it just a new benchtop?

I wouldn't go those dark laminate kitchen cupboards. I have the exact same and I absolutely loathe them now. I use to love the darker colours but now I wish I had just done them white, light gray or even the dark blue (although dark blue worries me a little too!). That dark laminate brown is such an absolute pain to keep clean. They show up every mark. I like your stone bench tops though but would look at other options to create the look you're hoping for with the joins and waterfall benches etc. Goodluck with it all!