Our water is considered to be hard (on the low end of hard, I think) and we have a SS sink in our new kitchen. I don't find it difficult to keep looking nice at all. I do make a point of rinsing it out with the sprayer head (on our faucet) after use--cuts down on any soap film build-up, and rinses out any missed bits of food. A few times a week (sometimes a few times, sometimes just once or twice--depends on my mood, how busy I am, or how much washing up we've been doing at the sink ), I'll give the sink a once over with a powdered SS cleaner and a sponge (Zud, Cameo, or BKF--right now I happen to have all three, but will cut down to one or two as we use stuff up!). Then, I'll often let the sink dry out (or wipe dry with a paper towel or micro fiber cloth), and follow-up by spraying the sink sides and bottom with 3M SS Cleaner/Polish spray and wipe it off--the oil in the spray helps the water bead up a little for a few days, and prevents water spotting.

Here's the thing, rocks911. Water chemistry isn't simple. Softeners use resin beads to exchanged the calcium and magnesium in your water for sodium or potassium. Resin beads are specialized plastics. They work really well under the right conditions, but if you have the wrong conditions, they won't do much for you and you will have wasted your money. Softeners will also collect iron and manganese, but only up to a point, and they resin does not like to let go of them during regeneration. Consequently, every ppm (part per million) of iron or manganese needs to be treated as if it were 4 - 5 grains of hardness. That is 68 - 85 times what we need to do to remove 1 ppm of hardness. It's a big deal, and can make a huge difference in correct softener sizing. Now, I can guess that your iron is exactly what the city report says it is, and assume that the water picks up nothing on its way to your house and size a softener for you and perhaps we will get lucky and you will get the correct softener. What if we're wrong? Then you will have spent money and still have the same problems you have now. You will be unhappy, rightfully so. Go to your yellow pages and look under water treatment. Find a local water treatment company and have them come out to do some testing for you. Tell them to test for iron. Their test will not be very accurate, and I would not size my personal softener based on it, but it's a cheaper alternative for you. Have several companies come out and make recommendations. Things to consider: 1) You don't want to water your lawn with softened water - grass doesn't like the extra sodium. You could use potassium chloride for regeneration, but that may be expensive if you are watering a lot in the Summer. It would be better if lawn water is left unsoftened. 2) You want a gravel underbed in your softener to improve resin life and ensure proper flow distribution. 3) You want a quality American made resin - it will be more uniform and last longer. The resin should be 10% cross-linked to withstand chlorine from city water. 4) You want a system that regenerates on demand, not based on time. 5) You want a bypass so that you won't have to shut off water to the entire house if your softener needs to be worked on. 6) You want to read and learn as much as you can before making a water treatment decision because, sadly, there are lots of snake-oils salesmen out there.

What did you end up doing? I'm debating the same thing now for our powder room. It already has a white pedestal sink. We are painting the bathroom a very light beige and replacing all the current chrome with either brushed nickel or black (vanity light, towel ring, TP holder and faucet) and I can't decide which.

I agree with others as I wouldn't change the faucet since the rest of the hardware would need to be changed as well. The faucet you have now goes well with the rest of the hardware choices. I would think that changing the paint color or even wallpapering, artwork - adding colorful towels - anything to add some color to the room which seems completely washed out with the pale green and beige.