When I was looking for 3 toilets to replace in house we were remodeling, the first toilet we bought from local HD would not fit together (two piece Cadet 3 I think)...the contractor took it back twice and couldn't get a good fit either time. I went to plumbing supply place cause I needed a specific part for Roman tub not available at Lowes or HD and talked to guy there... He said that what often happens is that big box stores sell "seconds" basically--products like a two piece toilet which came separately are much more difficult to find good matches/fits than the ones sold through his company where the two pieces came in one box...I ordered 3 of same toilets from him and cntractor didn't have any issues with installation at all... He said that plumbers would not waste the time homeowners would taking stuff back that didn't work right... I know that often times, faucets sold at HD and Lowes come sans handles so you have to buy those and often times both prices are more $ than when ordered as one unit from a plumbing supply place... I ordered almost every bathroom and kitchen fixture on line from company I can't remember now--cheaper, no sales tax, and better quality... I wonder if the tile like DalTile sold at the Big Boxes are maybe border line seconds as well--where the color isn't quite fired right or the edges are not quite as even/smooth...

I've bought light fixtures and rugs online at Home Depot that they didn't have at their stores. They were shipped for free and when I didn't like a couple of them once I got them, I was able to return them to my local Home Depot store with no problems. I kept my receipts and returned them in their original boxes and they gave me full refunds - no restocking fees or shipping charges. HD has so much more online than in their stores. I actually got my faucets from Amazon because they were less expensive there than HD and I knew I wanted them. (If I decided to return them to Amazon, I would have to pay return shipping.) I got a Delta Ashton for my kitchen sink about a year ago from Amazon and we've been very happy with it.

It occurs to me, re household help, potential future babies, and a kitchen you have to baby, that given your parameters you really don't want to deal with the clay sink. The marble only needs to be babied if you hate patina. When I had marble (cheap beige in an apartment abroad) I promise I didn't baby it. It was fine. Yes, you can get scratches and pits, and if something colorful soaks in it's a pain to get it out (though sealer probably helps a heck of a lot with that), but, as the guy from The Petch House famously said here on GW, "It's ROCK!". Fireclay is more durable than vitreous china (what normal bathroom fixtures are made out of), but it's not iron. It's fine for the woman who doesn't cook, but all the ifs of who else might be dropping a heavy hot pan or banging into it on his bicycle make me think it might be a problem in the long run. Kohler's current surface is fired at extremely high temperatures which is what they say makes it so very hard to chip. If a greige (thanks, again, Casey!) chip in your dark blue won't bother you, you won't mind redoing that part of the kitchen if it has a problem, or if you're willing to chance that yours is going to be one of the ones that never gets damaged (because plenty don't), then go with the fireclay if you think it's prettiest. And in a very blue moon a Kohler gets damaged too (though I think there's a warranty). But I have a whole list of things that my housekeeper, who's very careful and conscientious, but not emotionally attached to my stuff the way I am, has nicked, misused or broken. And she's a treasure! I was mightily tempted by a V&B fireclay sink, but life's too short to worry about it.

$350 to crawl up under a sink, remove the clips, break a rusty one, and then tease the silicone out from between it and the counter would be high. However, you also have to shut off the water, disconnect the supply lines, and disconnect the drain lines. All without cracking the old brittle pipes or breaking the old shut off valves that no one has exercised in a decade and are almost frozen shut. Then there is unplugging and disconnecting the disposal, which has a pinhole leak in it because it's a cheap Badger model that the grind chamber is rusting out, and the homeowners Wouldn't be "conned" into replacing something that theY "never" use. The DW drain hose is like iron instead of the flexible plastic it's supposed to be. The new sink has to have the faucet installed too. Then there is the reverse process, which is made MUCH harder because the new sink is deeper than the old one. And the homeowners don't want to replace the waste arm that is almost level now instead of sloped downward. That means the sink will drain slow, because water doesn't really go uphill. But they'll blame the plumber for doing a poor job. And that is just for replacing a plain top mount sink. $350 is not "high" for someone to do that. Not if you want that someone to have proper training and assume the major RISK that working with piping entails. If that's a charge for an uNdermount sink cutting and mounting, again, not high at all. I imagine that very few of you have been to a fabricators shop and seen the $10 million piece of equipment that it takes to do the job well and accurately. CNC equipment ain't cheap. Neither is doing it by hand, if your fabricator is just a small shop with a bridge saw. How long do you think it takes to hand polish a sink edge? Hours, if done properly. That $350? Well, we charge $500 for an undermount sink cutout, Polish, and mount. And my guy doesn't have errors. But, maybe he did in the past, and he knows that $350 doesn't cover the price of him buying you a whole new slab of stone. BTW, the $500 undermount charge still needs the $350 plumbing charge added to it, or call you own More expensive plumber. An average DW, disposal, sink, faucet, whole shebang unhook and new hookup, well, you're not getting that bundle for $350. More like $500, and I'm in a cheap labor market. But, we don't usE or recommend handymen. Just licensed plumbers who have insurance when that Original cheapo kludged saddle tap for your DW line starts pouring water out onto the floor. And this is why it makes no sense to choose the cheapest possible materials. Labor is the expensive component. You'll pay the same $350 to install that $49 23 gauge No name sink as you would a $700 18 gauge Blanco sink.