Plumeriavine, I am so sorry you are going through this. I really sympathize with your frustration and I admire you for trying to seek out solutions for the various issues. Some of them are just cosmetic, but many of them are structural and I think it would be good for you to take a step back for a minute and decide if you have the time, energy and experience to determine how to fix each and every problem individually. I'm not a lawyer, but I used to do a lot of contract work in my former job working with lawyers. I want to caution you that once you start developing and implementing your own solutions, you will begin to muddy the waters between what is you KD/installer's issue and what is a result of the fix you implemented. In simple terms, you're taking joint ownership of the problem. If you agree to a specific fix, they will be able to claim that you authorized it and they may be off the hook. As soon as you take ownership of fixing their mistakes, they will hold you accountable if the fixes don't work. It's taken them 6 months to do a horrendous job of installing a poorly designed kitchen. Allowing them to continue to butcher your beautiful cabinets and repair them inch by inch, while you do battle to get everything fixed is a long, long road. Even more complicated is trying to document every issue and every fix needed in an attempt to get a financial settlement out of them. Remember, these are just the issues you know of--there are probably more you haven't discovered yet. I think now is the time to make a firm decision to choose one of the following doors: 1. continue to work with these clowns bandaiding issue after issue, 2. get a thorough evaluation of all the problems by qualified third parties and go to court to get a monetary settlement to complete the job with someone else or 3. have they rip it out, put everything back to where it was and get a full refund. I don't think #1 is an option-you don't trust them and you will take ownership of the problem. And I honestly think that # 3 is a shorter road than #2. I know that's not what you want to hear, but as many have said, the problems are just too massive to think that you have a chance of catching every issue and developing the correct solution. You paid far too much for those beautiful cabinets to accept a hatchet job of an installation. Many years ago we watched as a good friend battled with a builder over their dream house experiencing structural issues. They continued to work with the builder, allowing him to implement solution after solution. In the end, they ended up in court and sold the house back to the builder. The whole process took over 5 years. When it was all over, they wished they had just cut loose from the builder when the problems piled up and moved on. Figure out which option you want to pursue, and put all your energy into that option. If it were me, I'd be headed for door #3.

Thanks for the feedback. The majority of the damage in on the cabinet frame portion between the sink and doors, so putting a skirt with a tension rod inside the cabinet opening isn't going to do much. I realize, the skirt will not prevent damage to the cabinet, but I'm hoping to cover the damaged portion, and possible reduce further damage. I can't see painting it every year. My builder did have the cabinet repainted one year after we moved it, but a year later it needs to be painted again. I'm hoping to do something along the lines of inspiration picture 1. I will put the skirt immediately below the sink so that none of the frame is visible. I hope it will also catch some of the water and then I will wash it periodically. Do you think this will look okay? I need a method of attaching it and a way to creat a little bit of gather. Jak1, I will look into the cable thing.

Facts are, no sink cabinet is really needed to install an apron/farmhouse sink. As long as there are adjoining cabinets on both sides, the necessary support structure can be attached to them. If one side panel of your present sink cabinet is damaged, a carpenter could make a new plywood side and attach it, and it could provide the needed support for the apron sink's substructure. AFAIK, copper sinks are a little lighter than the fireclay ones, and certainly lighter than the cast iron examples. Casey

The Trouble With "The Trouble with Tradition": I respect Mr. Yatron's opinion. He has the qualifications and experience to have one that should be paid attention to. I simply disagree. His primary objection to apron-front sinks is that they were designed for a by-gone era when large sinks were used to not just wash dishes, but for laundry and to butcher meat and de-bone fish. Since we have dishwashers and clothes washers and no longer butcher or de-bone in the sink, they are, in his opinion no longer needed and the extra size, weight and installation challenges usually cannot be justified. Everything he says is true, plus, apron-front or farmhouse sinks were not all that common in actual late Victorian or early Craftsman/Mission homes. Much more common were sinks that hung on the wall with integrated drain boards on both sides supported by legs that screwed into the bottom of the sink (see picture). The only thing going for farmhouse sinks is that people like the look, and if you like the look, there really is no substantial objection to using them. "Modern" apron-front sinks are usually designed to fit a standard 36" sink base, but not usually one you can get from a Big Box Lumber Store. You will have to go a little upscale on the cabinets to get a base suitable for an apron-front sink. They are heavy, and need special support. There are a lot of threads in this forum arguing the merits of the various commercial sink supports on the market, but we build ours out of 2"x 4" boards in about 10 minutes for $4.50, and they will support four times the weight of any fully filled sink. It's a task easily within the skill set of any competent carpenter. As for spillage, you can slop water over the edge of any sink. I can find no actual evidence that farmhouse sinks are more prone to spillage than other styles. This is a nonsense argument. One thing to be aware of though is that ceramic or "fireclay" (they're not really made of fireclay) sinks have a fragile exposed front apron that can be damaged fairly easily. If you are opting for an apron-front sink, think porcelain on cast iron for the best durability.