Stoned? Or should they be?

[Micky]

And you're going to have to lean over the counter whenver you are working on this. I would just leave it the way it is. Who's to say there should't be dark vertical lines every so often.

[Unquestionably Confused]

Well, I managed to view the back splash in person today and the solution, while time consuming and tedious, appears to be relatively straightforward.

1) The individual pieces of stone are all of only three or four lengths. 2) The offending dark pieces can be removed individually without damage to either themselves, the adjacent pieces or the underlying wall board. 3) Removing them will be no more involved than selecting those they wish to remove and carefully breaking the bond to the wall cement with a razor knife as pry tool. 4) The inoffensive pieces adjacent to the dark pieces will remain in place to provide support, alignment and a "preview" as they mix and match pieces to "lose" that hideous vertical "stripe."

I'm 100% certain that this plan will a) correct the problem and b) once I turn over the tedious work to the kids after showing them exactly what they need to do it will reinforce the "prior planning" aspect of this object lesson.

Best of all, I've conned them into have me and the wife come in on a weekend for their demonstration and instruction on this cure and that means a free lunch or dinner and quality time with our toddler grandson!

Everybody wins.

Still not sure how we'll cure the dark top band over the sink area but they have enough spare tiles to work something out, I'm sure.

[dpb]

...[description of removing individual tiles and swapping elided for brevity]...

Sounds at least feasible if they've got the patience.

I'd still be curious as to what the cause of the above is...unless there's a similar shading at the top and bottom of subsequent sheets similar to the edges and it only shows up there because there's the only place where there's a horizontal joint? Might try laying out some spares that way and see if that shows up. Otherwise, I'm at a loss to the cause; the other is easy to see "why".

I'd also really, really like to know what the manufacturer/distributor says of the appearance -- as to whether that's really the way if was supposed to look or not. Of course, it's a moot point if they're satisfied to deal with it on own and not seek any other redress for the need if it is, indeed, a flaw not a feature...

[Unquestionably Confused]

The other tiles are similar. No matter what you do, you're going to see a dark area along the interlocking butt joint. What's really strange is the dark bank along the top area. either the entire sheet she cut down was a darker shade overall (she only used a horizontal strip 5 (?) tiles high) or had a shading to the bottom. Pretty sure though based on what she had left over it was darker overall.

As far as I can determine it's a flaw. Nobody in their right (or wrong) mind would opt for a pattern like that. I'm surprised (and somewhat disappointed) that our daughter let it go to the point she did. She realizes now the error of her ways. I'll do half of the first vertical joint to show her how to correct it and then it's her baby. That will ensure there will be no repeat