Several months back, I asked my instagram friends their thoughts on a stainless steel sink versus a cast iron enamel one (and I promised to share what I ended up picking). Our old sink was really worn and beaten up (these tract home builders give you the cheapest stuff they can get away with!) and our faucet hadn’t been functioning properly for several months. Anytime a guest used the sink, they could never turn it off because there was a special (unconventional) way to do it. We kind of got used to our broken sink since we knew how to turn it on and off, but it was definitely a pain.

I had been doing research online about the pros and cons of various kitchen sinks, read things on consumer reports, but just couldn’t decide. It’s always been a dream to have a farm house sink, but it would be too much trouble (and money) to break the granite and have it adjusted, as well as the get the cabinet rebuilt for that. Another challenge was that the sink we picked out would have to have faucet holes in it, since there’s no room to have it on the counter top. After agonizing over which a sink and faucet for few months, we finally made our selections.

For our sink, I decided to go with a cast iron enamel one from Kohler (this one bought from a local showroom). This particular sink came with a no chip, stain, or crack guarantee (otherwise, they’ll replace it), so I thought I’d take my chance with it. I just love the look of the cast iron enamel over the stainless steel, and it’s as close as I’ll get to a farmhouse sink right now. It’s nice and deep, so much deeper than our previous sink; the shape of the opening makes it really spacious, which means that it can hide our dish messes well, definitely a plus!

After finally having the sink picked out, it was time to find a faucet. Ben’s mom has a touch one and we love using it when we’re in Texas, while we wanted that, we’ve read mixed reviews on them, so we opted against it. I like the farm looking faucet fixtures, but Ben didn’t like those, so we searched for something more simple. In the end, we picked this one (in stainless steel) from Pfister. We were both sold on the simplicity of it and Ben was excited about the retracting spray head. Also, it came with a pretty good warranty, so we felt good about it.

Even though we ordered our sink and faucet in the summer, it took awhile for them to get here, so we didn’t get them put into the kitchen until right before Thanksgiving, and we’ve been loving both ever since! We had our handy man install both the sink and faucet (I like DIY, but sometimes we leave certain things to the professionals, plus that sink weighed 125 pounds!), and he was impressed with the quality of both and said they should both last us a long time. I was nervous Ben wasn’t going to like the sink because I knew he wanted an equal dual basin sink (the right basin is smaller), but surprisingly he has no complaints (and none about the faucet either)!

We’ve been using both for about two months now and we’re pleased with our decisions. The sink is nice and big and keeps clean well, and the water comes out of the faucet so nicely. The retractable head is heavy duty and has a magnet that easily attaches back. It feels so much fancier (and better quality) than our previous sink and faucet, and it makes washes dishes feel a little bit more fun, well as fun as it could be! We ended up purchasing automatic this soap dispenser, and despite the mixed reviews about it, it has worked out pretty well for us so far. True’s currently into washing the dishes, and I think it has a lot to do with the fancy faucet and soap dispenser. Either way, I’ll enjoy it for as long as I can because I know one day it will be like pulling teeth to get her to wash the dishes. I hope that day doesn’t come too soon.