I bought a rohl 30" apron sink online for around the same price as white haven. The crazing cracking issue is because of over tightening when installing. Talk to the plumber and make sure someone who has done a farm sink nstalled ion many times before should be the one to do it. Also all farm sinks have variations. For the tightest fit without gaps, your cabinet guys need the actual sink on hand to build the sink cabinet right. A couple of things I would have done differently - got a 36" sink as the 30" is awfully tight for baking sheets and cookie trays. The sink does not slope/ drain well. It is a minor annoyance that I have to chase the dredges around to get it into the drain hole. My DH who is the main user of the sink is not bothered with this. You definitely need a good quality pull down faucet. The waterstone PLP we have which swings around and has a good pull down sprayer is very useful. I would have really hated a bridge faucet here. I would definitely get the extra deep flange for the sink and the sink grid. Both are very useful.

mount, yes, I do feel the same way about ranges as well. My feeling is that, esp. with things with moving parts, you want to go as simple as possible because the more moving parts something has, the more there is to break. Simplicity is always better, IMO, when it comes to appliances. I could be completely wrong about this, but my instincts tell me that the industrial/professional types of ranges everyone seems to "need' at a cost of $10,000, or more, are probably made very, very differently for residential customers than they are for restaurants and other commercial entities. IMO, they are an enormous waste of money and are about ego and narcissism rather than about anything practical (spend $2K on a good GE Profile range and give the $8K you'd save from buying a Viking range to a charity if you have that much to spend on a stove!). In addition, those professional ranges, the real ones, are powerful, and they are because cooking in restaurants is very different than cooking at home. They have to cook very fast and large quantities, so they need a lot of heat. That is NOT the case at home, and so many of my clients have those ranges and they are TOO hot and difficult to control. In addition, most who have them barely cook and cook mac and cheese with hot dogs for their kids. That can easily be done on a regular oven! But mostly I suspect they're not made nearly like the actual professional/industrial ranges and are in fact a big waste of money. That said, you certainly don't want an eyesore for a range. I got a hand-me down from a friend who restores old homes and gave me a GE profile he pulled out of a house in Cambridge, MA. I love it. And I got lucky in that it was black with SS. My dishwasher is black, my sink is SS, and my fridge is black handle with SS door fronts, black surround. So the GE was perfect. However, ultimately, I think what you should care about with appliances is the quality and reliabilityâ¦which I also think has become very difficult to achieve. I was away today. I"ll take a pic tomorrow. Promise.

I was thinking the same thing as Fori, that the cabinets and design would have to be completely reconfigured, in which case I would understand the upcharge. But if the design does not have to be reconfigured, then the $1000 is a rip-off. Can you please provide more info about which Whitehaven sink you are talking about, as the various styles influence the price. Assuming you are talking about the 36" single-bowl, tall-apron Whitehaven in white (#K-6489-0), the price at Home Depot is $937. How can your builder charge $1000 more for a sink that doesn't even cost $1000? The Whitehaven has price differences depending on size, tall apron vs. short apron, and color. Please let us know which one, and please challenge your builder on this one. If he won't budge, I might ask him to credit you for the sink, and you'll buy it yourself.

@cpartist How do you like the DXV Hillside? Any pros/cons with it? Anyone else have one? We were originally considering the 36" Shaw farmhouse sink but the salesman said they all end up crazing over time. He said that Shaw makes their sinks they same way they did 100 years ago and it takes 3 days to dry. In those 3 days the sink settles and thats why the bottom can not consistently drain towards the drain (thus puddling) and that the settling enables the crazing to happen over time. He showed us several sinks like the Franke and Home Refinements Julien but those two were too modern for our kitchen (thinner walls). He said if you're going for a really worn in kitchen with lots of character in a 100 year old house, then those crazing spider webs on the Shaw won't matter. Our house is built in the 1930's with white inset shaker cabinets but I still don't want to look at cracks in my sink. The Hillside has almost the same dimensions and thicker walls like the Shaw. He said they poke a hole in the bottom front in the drying process and all the liquid fireclay pours out and leaves a shell of a sink. That leaves the sink sounding a bit more hollow when you knock on it, but also allows it to dry in one day so that it retains its shape. The water will drain toward the drain and the sizes don't vary like the Shaw (+/- 2%). I'm worried if something went wrong with the Shaw and we had to replace it, that it wouldn't fit exactly in the original cutout for the sink. I'm not too aware of the DXV brand though. Any good?