lo_yost: I've done your job: It's a lot more work than just cutting the engineered stone for $300.00. Figure five times that plus the cost of the Pete's Sink Mount kit ($300.00) and the cost of the sink. Engineered stone cuts more easily than natural stone. Either way, the guy cutting the estone had better be able to patch when he bisects an old sink clip penetration: You can't be afraid to tap off the cabinet front; there is no other way to get the sink in because the bowl is deeper than the cabinet rail. After the front is pulled the sink is set in place but forward enough to get the front back on. When the front is on, the sink apron is pushed to the cabinet front. Hot melt glue the front to the cabinet sides just like they did at the factory. Silicone the flange, tighten the Pete's which raises the sink into final position, wipe off the silicone (match the top, not the sink) and you're done. Good luck.

Thanks for your comments. Question 3. above refers to having the rusted z-flashing in place, but covering the rusted z-flashing with a trim strip caulked at the top, so no more rusting. That shouldn't take that much caulk, and caulk is cheap compared to residing (which uses caulk, too *smile*). The trim strip cover for the existing z-flashing is the least labor and materials intensive approach, and I'm stongly considering doing it as an interim thing to see how well and how long it works. I do have a quote out for replacing the T1-11 in this one bad spot with new T1-11 and z-flashing and priming and painting it. I'll see where that comes in, to see if it makes more sense than the interim solution I'm considering. I also have a quote coming for vinyl re-siding, but I'm expecting that to be quite expensive. Although I may decide to go that way for the long term, even though it isn't wood *smile*. Thanks again.

T1-11 is about as simple as siding gets, hard to imagine that any halfway trained carpenter can't fix it. Just replace entire damages sheets ("patching" isn't worthwhile) and make sure a z-flashing is used at the top edges to divert water to the outside at joints. A "siding contractor" will almost certainly try to sell you something different and more expensive, like vinyl siding. Just look for an ordinary carpenter.

The owner of the construction company we used called my husband to let him know they did not appreciate all of my long emails requesting resolution to all of our problems - that I was the worst customer they have ever had! How are we supposed to deal with this company when it is day 100+ since we have closed on the house, and we have not had our promised 30-day walk-through? We have stacks of uninstalled cabinets in our dining room (haven't been able to shop for furniture). We haven't been able to use our master bathroom. We haven't been able to use our master tub since it was never caulked to prevent water from getting behind the walls. Our shower glass door hits the floor so we have to squeeze through a narrow opening. We have no kitchen refrigerator. Our hood cabinet has a huge gap revealing the metal exhaust duct. Our kitchen crown molding has been partially ripped off in December to try and fix the hood cabinet - unsuccessfully. We have multiple holes in our drywall from three water leaks in our home. We have yellow water stains on our ceilings. Our carpet is installed incorrectly - stair landing was omitted - never carpeted by mistake. Some treads are tucked under some are not. The carpet is cut short and not tucked under. Raw, fraying edges of the carpet are visible with gaps to the wall. We have some damaged, splintered tongue and grooves on some of our hardwood flooring boards. We had several outlets that never worked since drywall was covering one of the outlets. The builder dismissed me and didn't believe that they didn't work until they finally sent an electrician out this week. We have to run space heaters in our basement (which has 2 of our 4 bedrooms) in order to be comfortable. We have a basement bathroom that gets down to 52 degrees - there is no HVAC run within 25' of that bathroom. Our countertops were installed without proper support. The owner of the stone company says the laundry counter is ruined. There is no way to get the sag out of the quartz and the entire slab will need to be replaced once proper support is installed underneath. None of our exterior windows were caulked (we were told caulking was on "backorder") and there are huge spaces between the windows and the brick....perhaps this contributes to our cold basement...Our roof needs to be replaced due to defective shingles (color pattern problem). We can't charge our car and run a shop vac in our 1100 sqft garage and workshop without overloading a circuit. God forbid we try to have a garage refrigerator or use power tools. The scratches in our tubs and shower pans were never fixed. Our tile is uneven and still covered in grout. Our ducts are full of drywall dust and construction debris - scraps of wood, nails and screws...When we opened our HVAC filter compartment it was completely coated in white drywall dust - solid white. And to top it all of, we had our son sleeping in the basement bedroom next to a gas leak in our mechanical room while running a space heater. How quickly should we expect a builder to respond to a gas leak without getting upset? I am not even listing the minor little drywall cracks, bumps, boogers, and nail pops etc. We have not been able to use or enjoy our new home and the builder has nothing but disdain for us. What should we do? How do you deal with a company like this?