Real stone in a kitchen - lookout, it is REALLY easy to scratch, and then it shows . . . friend of our family did this and regretted it - some of the synthetics are as bad or worse though.
I think we can safely assume from that comment that Mrs. Growltigga does not read this forum (either that or Growltigga will mysteriously disappear from it in the near future . . .
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Re: the valuation guy - - of COURSE he values stuff high - that way they can charge you more $$! If I were an insurance company, I would use whatever risk formula I use (which must be good, the companies make lotsa money), and send an "overevaluator" to a low-risk place, and an "underevaluator" to a high-risk place. Of course, that would be illegal, but if you kept track of who tends to value this way or that, you could make it virtually impossible to detect/prove. Maybe I'm way too cynical, but . . .
I wonder if Bill Gates buys insurance . . . he definitely shouldn't. I wonder what he would have to pay on his super-house (the one with the movie theater, etc etc etc) if he did . . .