When we built our house in 1986, we finished the interior ourselves. We chose some very nice cherry kitchen cabinets (Continental Kitchens in Shelbyville) and they have held up very nicely.
Due to financial constraints, we installed laminate countertops which looked nice but are past their prime, to say the least. The substrate is de-laminating over the dishwasher and there are numerous chips and peels. Time for new countertops. Have you shopped for countertops lately? All of the hard surfaces have some flaw- they either absorb oils, scratch, or discolor is a hot pan is placed on them.
While watching a TV cooking show one day, I noticed that their countertops were wood! So I did a little surfing and came up with several ideas. The one I liked best was using maple hardwood flooring. Maple trees are indginous to Indiana, produce very hard wood (think basketball floor!) and are a lovely pale off-white color, very similar to the laminate lights color (did not want dark counters withe the dark cabinets.
Did some research and found a mill in Spencer Indiana - 40 mile drive - that will sell unfinished flooring! 
A few weeks ago, David, our son, and I drove down and picked up 60 square feet of 3" unfinished maple flooring milled with tongues & grooves.
I have been planning and buying materials ever since and am now ready to commence.
On the advice of Scott Nesbitt, a good friend and jack of all trades, I am using AdvanTech subfloor as the substrate (the flooring tongue & groove system assumes a strong substrate to support the floor).
Found the AdvanTech at Carter-Lee in Indy and went there with good friend (and pickup truck owner) Terry Pavlack and bought three sheets (one for the island and two for the main L-shaped countertop. Last week, David came down and we trimmed the island piece to size with a hand held power saw (using a 2X4 clamped as a saw guide).
One of the scraps is big enough to act as a substrate for a small utility cart, and I decided to start small and learn before I jumped into teh deep end.
This morning, I cut the AdvanTech to size and selected pieces of flooring. The next episode will chronicle the assembly of that piece.