21:51 here. I meant to add that you should check out gardenweb.com's kitchen forums and their Finished Kitchen Blog. I got lots of useful help and I wasted days of my life just staring at all the beautiful kitchen eye candy.

Granite is porous too

Natural stone is porous, but granite really isn't when it's properly sealed - at least nothing like wood is. Liquids should bead on the surface of the granite; if they penetrate the surface or leave a water mark, it needs to be resealed.

OP, I personally would not get wood counters, but I like your kitchen vision, especially since it is meaningful/sentimental to you and evokes your childhood. I say go for it. (We just put in cream cabinets with a chocolate glaze and they are gorgeous!)

We have wood counters and I love the way it looks. Yes, they stain, though the stains (so far) are fairly light and I feel like it gives the room character (no, I'm not joking). We do not have a fancy kitchen, and the counters were really inexpensive - from Ikea - so I guess I feel like if they get really bad, I can simply replace them. We sand/oil them about twice a year and so far they are still pretty decent looking.

I was an AP for a family with such counter. It was pristine (with a 3yo and a 7yo - and an AP ).
We had to apply the oil every 2 weeks (I had to) and just keep wiping it like any other kind of counter.
Bacteria problem happens with any kind of counter. By the way, granite is porous too

Dont let anyone piss on your parade about having a country kitchen. Who cares if it's not trendy. YOU'RE the one who has to live with it for the next decade, do it however you like. As far as butcher block v granite, is your kitchen big enough that you can compromise by doing say an island with the butcher block counter and then a *warm* granite maybe?

OP here. Why? Is "country" ever so passe and gauche?

So here it is, laugh if you like: terra cotta floor (porcelain, real is too fragile), cream cabinets with some kind of chocolate glaze, copper sink, dark wood countertop. The "country" is mostly in the terra cotta and copper, also a bit in the wood counter. Some kind of fleur de lys accent tiles on backsplash maybe.

This is my first house, and I SO want it to look like my family's country house in France - with terra cotta and wood counters. DH thinks I'm crazy...

I would expect a grace period of, say, 20 minutes or so before surface liquids threaten the integrity of well-finished wood.

My friends with wood counters had to oil much more often than annually... maybe every two or three months? The rented and cared for the property scrupulously, and I must say those counters were heavily used but gorgeous!

But you still haven't explained the country thing!

OP here.
Yes, wood must be oiled or waxed every year to waterproof it. Wood is not less hygienic than other materials, since butchers use them for cutting meat.

About the stains, did they appear even if you wiped the spill immediately? I do not remember stains on my childhood's wood counters, but then a child probably does not care about that

Oh, and OP, good for you for having kitchen visions (why the blush?), but a country look? Really?

I think they're beautiful when pristine, but if you want to keep them looking nice, I hear it requires a lot of maintenance (oiling?) and care during use.

That said, it's probably fairly easy to refinish them every few years.

Stains, stains, and more stains. We have butcher block in our rental house and things that you don't think twice about putting on a normal counter (red wine bottle, tomato paste can, etc) all leave permanent stains that can't be removed. And yes, there is the bacteria issue...

http://www.home-style-choices.com/wood-countertops.html

http://interiordec.about.com/od/kitchencounters/tp/tp_countertops.htm

http://www.hardwoodcountertops.com/products/

We had one small section of butcher block countertop in our old kitchen. I spilled food coloring while making Christmas cookies and had to look at that blue stain the rest of the time we lived there. Nothing would take it out, short of having it sanded and refinished.

Wood is porous and therefore absorbs things such as color/ stains from food and it harbors bacteria in every little groove & scratch left from knives, etc. You could do a small area of butcher block I'd never do my whole kitchen in wood. Better yet, get one of those beautiful oversize butcher blocks that you can leave out on the counter; that way it's not permanently installed in your kitchen but you get a similar look.

Good friends of mine put wood countertops (butcher block) in their house. I had never seen it done before. They are French, by the way. It seemed strange to me and somewhat unhygienic, but that's probably because I am not used to seeing it.

When I was growing up in France, we had wood countertops - I remember their warmth and patina with nostalgia.
Now for our new home, DH only wants granite or similar, which I think is too cold and hard, and do not go with the country look I envision for my kitchen (yes, I have kitchen visions ). We have two young children, and plan on living in the house 5-10 years.

Which do you prefer and why?