First shopping for counter tops

Today was my first day at truly looking at the differences between counter top materials and prices thereof. Whoa!

I did find out at Lowe's that one orders from them, you (yourself) have to measure it, you (yourself) have to do all the removal and whatever prepping, and then the person you buy it from (Dupont probably) provides the installer. (I guess these measurements had better be correct, because they are all cut previous to your specs before they get there.)

When you see the prices of these 4 major groups of materials, you think, well that is the price of that; I can choose between $26 per sq. ft., for laminate, $39 for corian, $56 for Zodiaq -- but NOO!, you go over to the little pieces to see all the different choices of color and that $56 can run up $70+ depending on what color you want! Good Grief!!!

I'm thinking that one would not want to install a kitchen counter top and then decide to buy a slide-in stove -- wouldn't that just mess up your new counter top big-time! How could you ever get a good fit if you bought and installed a new stove 'after' you bought your new counter top? I'm thinking perhaps a private company closeby in your home town might be worth the price - that is, after you get an idea of your base costs.

Do people buy stoves (slide in) or cook tops usually in conjunction with getting new counter tops? BTW -- I like the looks of one of the Zodiaq darks, but I also like a light pebble textured corian.

I don't know if there is a program online to calculate costs for measured counter tops materials and showing them using certain colors. That would be nice -- I think I'll have to look around. I hate these stick-figured type of things I've seen Lowes use. I'm not too good with Paint Shop Pro.

Thanks for listening, and welcoming any advice when anyone has time. Dee Dee