I would have them seam it, take the money and buy something pretty - vase, rooster, fancy espresso machine - to sit on top of the seam. If the grain/pattern is truly directionless you won't even see the seam in a week. You can either inspect the slabs before they seal the seam, or you can actually take scraps and hold them next to each other, if you can turn the scraps any which way, and they still seem to match at a distance, it should look fine. Maybe someone here will comment on seam placement. My kitchen counters are seamed at the faucet, which is supposed to be an inconspicuous place, because the faucet base splits up the seam - at first it drove me crazy because I saw it every time I looked at the faucet, now I have to look to notice it.

When we were looking, slabs that were over 5' by 8' were pretty common. Some are as wide as 10'. I'm not sure how many of the are 8' 10" or bigger, but there are slabs that could do your island in one piece. Some of the more exotic stones only come in smaller slabs. At first we thought that we would have to have a seam for our 4' 5" by 8' 3" island top. If the fabricator is good and the slabs are bookmatched (consecutive slabs are mirror images of each other so they can put so that the grain match on both sides of the seam is almost perfect) it can look pretty good. Only two yards in town carried our granite. One of them was Bedrosians and they found big enough slabs at another one of their yards. Our slabs were a bit over 10' long. Another consideration is the access to your island. If the granite has to go around corners in your house to get to the island, a large area might not be able to be done as a single piece even though the slab is big enough. Our slabs came in through the sliding door right to the island. If it is a pretty straight shot from your kitchen to the front door or garage, that wouldn't be a problem.

I can't imagine chiseling 2 pieces of granite and then stacking them on top of each other thinking that they would somehow look cohesive. Did you decide to laminate for a thick edge late in the process? (i.e. after they had already chiseled one "layer"? If so, then you are stuck, if not, then I would say it's a do over, because anyone in the business should have laminated first, chiseled second...) I guess alternatively, you could try to chisel it some more around the seam, but I am thinking that should be done by a pro....

I agree Super L...the fact that he walked away from it the first time as a "finished product" is ridiculous.