Have you looked at the Ikea 25" farmhouse sink? Would one extra inch make this undoable? This sink would work great with a laminate counter--some friends of mine have the 36" farmhouse and laminate--because it's designed with a lip on each side. Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49847479/

kitchenobsessed - you are right about going a little larger. I acutally was doing that until it just got to be too close for comfort in meeting my granite install deadline. With my old sink, it was such a tight squeeze, you couldn't even slip a piece of paper between my cabinet and the sink. That made me nervous since I wouldn't have been able to return the sink once it was installed. My old sink was the size you have and that's the size I wanted to stay with. That being said, I'm not sure I would have been any happier with the larger sink - this has really turned out to be pretty darn good. I don't know the brand name of the sink I have now, as it was totally from builder's stock. It's 18guage and pretty quiet, with no tinging. I have an Elkay that I have to return that would have fit, size-wise, except that I didn't have room for a drain in the back of the sink vs, the middle. My plumbing configuration would have to have been changed significantly - my house is old. But the Elkay sink is 21x18x9. The Galaxy Tool sink was a 16 guage SS that I think was a tad bit larger. If you don't have the problem with plumbing space like I did, you may be able to go larger. I called Galaxy and they recommended it. I know it was a Ticor. I don't remember the brand name of the other one I saw. BTW, I have a lot more room under the sink than I had before. I replaced the disposal but the new one is the same size; my old sink was only 7" deep, so I'm not sure why I have all that room now. I can't seek 1-2 inches making that much of a difference - plerplexing. Maybe it's the shape of the sink. But, as I said, I love the sink - especially when i have to wash dishes by hand. Good luck. Let me know if you have more questions.

We just put in a 25" soapstone sink and so far its been great. It fully fits my largest Saute pan and cookie sheets - so that they don't have to stick out of the sink anymore. We had to go with 25" because like you we wanted to have the sink centered on the window. I had a 36" double SS sink before the remodel and this smaller single sink is much better. More counter space and the pans fully fit into it. Don't know what type of counter material you will have, but you may want to see if you can have a sink made to the size that you need.

My first thought is an 18" dw is fine for a small rental kitchen. We rented out part of the lower part of our first house. We went to trouble and expense to make the kitchen better than what was there. Long story short, every single tenant we had religiously bought take out and used the larger fridge we bought for some lonely leftovers, beverages and condiments. The second to last tenant asked us to remove the island to fit his big sectional in and the last guy did not use it either. We wasted well over $1k, when we were new homeowners and cash was tight, in an effort to have a better rental unit. I'd do a modest size sink and give them more drawer space. You don't want them able to pile up too many dishes anyway.... Ikea has great options for smaller kitchens. Try out their online planner and ask for help when you go there.