I was just going to post that Aunttomichael ;-) I absolutely adore my Silgranit sink, and love the way it just disappears into the soapstone countertops. My reasoning was pretty simple -- I'm not the kind of housekeeper who maintains a pristine sink. There's usually a plate, glass or a few pieces of silverware in my sink, not to mention some droplets of water or even bits of food. Just the realities of my life. So for that reason, I DID NOT WANT my sink to be the focal point of my kitchen. The Silgranite is so similar to my dark soapstone in color and overall 'feel' that it just fades quietly into the background, hiding my dirty little secrets... Also, Silgranite is SO EASY to take care of! Even though I rarely wash and wipe my sink, it still looks great. It doesn't show water spots, has nary a scratch or stain, and is soft on dishes. As you may have gathered from the prior paragraph, I'm not a 'sink person' (tile is my drug of choice) -- but this sink - Wow!

We currently have a, now discountinued, cast iron Kohler sink with a drainboard, and we like the drainboard a lot. So, my initial gut thought had been to look for one with a drainboard. Initially we had been planning to reuse this sink but the rethought that thinking we would be fools to invest that much money in countertops to install an odd-sized sink that could not be replaced if something happened to it. The micro-edge does look lovely and we may yet end up with a stainless (even though I am more of the porcelain look person myself) solely because of some other issues we have with size constraints. We too learned many years ago that you get what you pay for, and an initial larger investment upfront pays off in the long run. Perhaps some of those complaints about disgusting looking stainless sinks were from people with the really low end sinks. Even though I know that the top mount sink came later than the era of my house, I too to seem to prefer them aesthetically. Perhaps it is because of the feeling they evoke of kitchens from a earlier era. It's too bad there isn't something similar to the microedge availabe in cast iron. OTOH, I can definitely also see the idea of thinking of my kitchen as not a period piece but as something that has evolved over the decades and has not been static set in one time. I'm sure the housewife who first coccupied it would have been thrilled to be able to upgrade portions of it to the latest technology like micro egde sinks.

I have Belvedere soapstone from M. Tex. Julia was my first choice, it's beautiful and supposedly one of the harder soapstones, but they were out of it at the time and I didn't want to wait. I have an undermount sink and have had no problems with chipping in the 9 months I've been using it. I had runnells cut in to the counter, so my sink needed to be undermount. Plus, I would rather see the soapstone than the lip of an overmount sink.

rhome....that's what I was hoping it would come out like! I guess I just didn't know how to express it. The specific differences I'm contemplating are these.: All painted cabs in scullery, half painted, half stained oak in front kitchen.Antique brass pendents over breakfast counter in front kitchen; school house light or freznel glass or other more utilitarian pendent over back kitchen sink. Tile backsplach in front (maybe a basketweave or whirlwind pattern in creamy yellow, with various colored accents); beadboard or plain creamy yellow tile in back. Different cabinet hardware. CAbs in front, arts and crafts style with a center stile, cabs in back, a plainer shaker style (same flat recessed panel, but no center style) . Yes?