Thanks for your response. Attaching pics. Looking forward to your suggestions

You list is all "stone" products. Stone products are natural. The durability is guaranteed with stone. Stain resistant...remove marble and granite from your list. Both can stain and etch and both will do this with "flooring" more than they will with a counter top. Gloss levels all change...but it will take years to do it. All stones have maintenance = homeowner needs to work at keeping stone looking good. Stone = expensive. There is no "benefit" for "reasonable" when working with stone. They all cost plenty of money. Stone is expensive. No way around it. If you want "glossy" that doesn't stain for a "good price" then you have forgotten to mention the BEST option: porcelain tiles. Porcelain will do everything you want for a lower price. Stone is expensive, it can stain (especially "oil" stains) it will "etch" or lose gloss level with certain liquids (acid based liquids will do this) and they all need to be maintained and eventually need repolishing to maintain "gloss". Durable is all you can expect out of stone. The rest of your wish list belongs with porcelain tiles.

thank you very much to everyone who responded! I'll look into espresso and charcoal grays. As well as the steel backplash. Emmarenes, I'm living abroad in India, and the only granites in my budget are the local ones. I was advised against the gray and white local ones because i was told that they would not hold up well in the kitchen. I could have gone with a black galaxy as well but i have that granite now and despise it because of the way it hides ants and bugs so well. we live in a tropical area and there are always critters here and there. My first choice was a Brazilian white granite but it was triple the price. This granite is called Shiva pink, so it has a pink salmon and gray look to it. Im really hoping I don't hate it once it's installed. The stoneyard was a 9 hour trip up and down and i was just pressured to make a choice after several undecided trips. And I'm getting new cabinets put in. but I think I can wait for them to put the slab before staining the wood. Thanks for that idea :)

Why would you not want to use glass in those tall openings? It may be the main source of light for the interior of the building during the day. Unless you really can't bear so much sunlight or you are concerned about the lack of privacy at night. In which case you can use frosted glass instead of clear upto the top of the second slab level. Above that level you will get three vertical rectangular frames. You could commission stained glass panels for those. Alternatively, below the stained glass panels you could used wooden slats with gaps in between