Thanks so very much everyone. I really appreciate each of your kind replies and helpful information, I learned a lot! I get tired just thinking of doing all of this and the sink isn't leaking or anything as it's superficial at this point, but it's true that it could rust the cast iron once it starts to penetrate the coating but I am thinking that is a long way off. Boy, did I learn a lesson, never cheat a bigger sink into a smaller cabinet. It looks fine and not too big but the cabinet sides on the inside are where the problems begin. Not to mention another lesson I learned is that I had some left over granite but they offered to cut it for a large demilune furniture piece top in my foyer. I am wishing I had that piece now. I am not sure it would have been big enough just for the section around the sink but I will never know now. Thank you for the compliments on the kitchen, I am the no clutter queen but looking at that picture maybe I should let up a little on that, ha ha. When this is resolved I'll let you know what happened. It may be awhile! Linelle, I hope the problem with the sink base was answered for you in the helpful posts above. Thanks so much appreciate the kind words.

Great thread...it's great to see some of my favorite things on other's lists. I have just now been able to afford to really pick things for myself and my tastes, so some I have not had for long, but others have been with me since childhood.. My mother's lenox china (now mine) My Grandmothers sliver tea set (also mine) Various crystal and sliver candle sticks of my mom & grandmothers. Crystal vases My crystal Doilies my mother and great grandmother made Silk ribbon embrodery work of my moms Yellow, my favorite color, especially paired with blue and white. Antique pine and newer painted pine Walnut furniture Wood floors especially wide planked pine Art Glass especially that made by my mom's best friend Ceramics in vibrant colors especially red My broken tile backsplash (while new, is totally me) and I got to help create it:

Quartz countertops are, for example, very easy to clean and maintain, but everything actually depends on how do you use your kitchen (how often, do you clean right after preparing a meal, etc.). Also, new kitchens are easier and faster to clean than old ones. Hiring a cleaning company once every two weeks is ideal if you regularly clean your kitchen. Once a week is best if you don't like to clean up often. Practicing this routine will make any kitchen as clean as possible.

There are reasons GC costs money, sometimes BIG Money. But they prevent disasters. Just to name a few, GC's work including planning sequence of events, scheduling work, mitigating risks, progress, verifying results, controlling costs and most important, providing solutions for anything unexpected. Do you know how long each job would take, and how much it would cost? Do you know how much slack you need to leave between each jobs and each stage of the project? Which should come first? which could wait for a while? Do you know how to recover if any work is behind schedule? Do you know how to adjust budget and cost if you have cost overrun? Do you know the requirement of each task? Can you judge if any task meeting standards and requirements? Can you tell a good job from a bad one? Do you have contingency plan for any event and risk, such as heavy rain stops transporting of your order that is 3 states away. A contractor has to reschedule work because his wife gives birth a couple of weeks earlier. An item you order does not arrive in time or the vendor sends a wrong item or item has missing parts or defectives? Are you good at settling dispute with vendors, smoothing conflicts between different contractors or job shops? Can you use languages that building department employees, inspectors, vendors and contractors understand? The list goes on and on. At times even you have plenty money it would not help, since money could not buy time. If you have 100 percent confidence answering all of the above questions (they are only a subset of issues and problems), you still need extra capacity and competency to handle anything unexpected, unplanned, failed, and...etc.