Judy, Here's my 2 bits worth from another dish drainer person! I always had a huge dish drainer (so big that it was fairly difficult to 'hide it' under the sink when I knew company was coming). In fact, my original plans for my kitchen included getting runnels as I just assumed I'd have the dish drainer on the counter (though maybe upgraded to a 'prettier' one) in the new kitchen. But, with my new bigger, deeper sink ( I have 2/3, 1/3- 10" deep with granite), I hand wash in the bigger one and keep a new smaller dish drainer in the smaller sink. Huge huge improvement in how my kitchen looks, and because the DD is smaller, I put the dishes away sooner. Also, with a new tall tub DW I can fit more dishes/pots in there, so don't have to hand wash quite so many things. I think some people are not hand washers, don't know how that can be :>), but when I talked to my Mom about runnels, she had no idea what I was talking about, and when I explained, had no idea why I would need them! :>) So, different things for different folks. But, I would guess that I would be like Cleo, if I had more space for dishes to dry in, it would just be filled up with more dishes. I really really prefer my new setup, with enough room to put those few things I have to dry, but small enough that it forces me to put things away sooner. (AND, being in the sink, hidden from view) No more ugly plastic drainer on the counter- no need for runnels (which are expensive!!) Yeah!

I was hoping scrappy would join the conversation. I just snapped a pic of mine and you can see it does not splash with the faucet on regular flow. I believe you need to choose the faucets carefully to fit your use, especially if wall mounted. One thing I'd like to mention though is that I would not want to give up the shelf to hand washing. That is my favorite prep area. As I've used my sink for six months now, I've developed patterns; I use the right 3/4's for prep and the area to the left of the drain for dirty/transitional stuff and hand washing. Hand washing is a main reason I went with the Kohler. My DH is not trainable regarding this and it's one of the reasons we chose the stages. I did consider this in the planning stage and have my fridge to the right of the landing counter, the trash and recycle directly below the center of the sink and DW to the left. We considered two faucets but ultimately went with one Kohler Karbon. It reaches all corners and i love that I do not have to hold it. I love it as much as my sink. The shelf is very handy during prep. That's where I open packages, put my prep scraps, actually it changes jobs continually and I have to say it is the most active part of my sink and I would not want hand washing there. I also place my small dish drainer there for cleanup. This is my typical setup except I usually use small colanders on the grate, then slide them under my cutting boards to keep the left clear for hand washing. In your case, I would consider a wall mount Karbon on the shelf side and the Hi-rise on the left.

I am definitely liking the dishwasher to the right of the sink. If I do that, I do think there would need to be another cab to the right of the dishwasher to store the dishes. I also think it would be great if we could remove the wall to the dining room except the part that runs along the cabs in the lower right. It would really help to tie the dining room and kitchen together especially since this isn't an eat-in kitchen. I am still letting all of the other great ideas settle. My original plan had a peninsula in the upper left. Buehl - I think you said you had ideas for a peninsula. I would love to see any ideas. A peninsula would be great because it would give my kids another place to eat snacks and do homework. It would be great as a serving place. The cons of course are a reduction in walking space and constriction. Having those corners also really reduces the amount of long counterspace or other useful places to put things along the wall. Do you think I should skip a peninsula? Does anyone have ideas for one? I see that a peninsula could be on either side. If it is near the dining room it might constrict it too much. If it is on the family room side it would really reduce the counterspace. That's why I had it extending into the family room as much as I thought was feasible. I should add that because we live in SoCal and our house is small, most people eat outside for our large parties (except Thanksgiving and Xmas). So it is better if the serving area is on the left side of the kitchen. However, the left side of the kitchen plus the right side of the family room is where many people stand during our parties. Anyway, I would appreciate it if any of you had some great ideas (or not) for a peninsula before I head down the road of a straight galley kitchen. You guys have been so helpful, thanks!!

You can install two separate sinks in a countertop. In fact, in the old days, before double-bowl sins were invented, the only way to have a double sink was to install two, and sometimes three, sinks side by side. They were not common in homes but often used in restaurants and hotels. A couple of issues: The narrow countertop strip between the sinks is not strong enough to support the weight of the sinks + water, and will need to be strengthened. You will need a single cabinet wide enough for the two sinks -- at least 48" or possibly wider for the size of the sinks you are talking about, or two cabinets. Two cabinets is often not as good a choice since the sinks cannot be installed as close together. The countertop strip between the sinking will get a lot of wear, more so that the rest of the countertop, and will show the wear much sooner. You can take two ordinary stainless sinks and have them welded together by a stainless steel fabricator. Once they are re-polished, you cannot see the seam. In fact, when double bowl sinks are made at the factory, they start as two separate sinks that are then joined, welded and polished. If you live in or near a fairly large town, you probably have one or more stainless fabricators locally -- you know, the guy that makes restaurant countertops and fixtures for the local jail. It will ordinarily be a lot cheaper to join two good 18/8 or 18/10 stainless single sinks bought at Home Depot than to have one large double sink custom made. The quality would be the same, especially since the custom fabricator is probably just going to join together two single sinks he bought at Home Depot and smile when he hands you the bill.