My sink is in the island, with enough room on either side of it for prep. It may not be the neatest position, though we do try to load the dishwasher as we go along (and, in times of high crisis, as when we have guests over, the worst mess gets transported to the sink in the butler's pantry and the door resolutely closed on it). The thing is, I can do prep while looking into the lounge to watch TV, chat to guests, or even to my better half. We tend not to use the bench as a breakfast bar, but there's plenty of room for a couple of people to sit at it nursing their drinks and chatting with host or hostess, should they be of a mind to do so. It's probably not the height of elegance or decor, but it works for us....Might be different if the kitchen had a window, but since it doesn't, I'd rather look at better half than at the wall.

Hi all, great post. Hard to find alot of reviews in kitchen sinks. Ive been looking at oliveri sinks to. Got nervous due to bad reviews. @Azur Farrell I went and looked at ABI on the goldcoast. Very helpful and sales pitch was great. The lady there had installed two gunmetal sinks in her home and said she was more than happy. For me the sinks was not quite the right size. She did tell me that the colour was 3/4 the way thru. ?? This might make scratches less obvious. I need to do more research on this as its only natural that your sink will get a scratch or two over x amount of years. I had More or less decided on the spectra in gun metal. (Wanted a bigger bowl). Did you get yours Azur? Im wonder if its scratches easily. Given its only 1.2mm coating im concerned it will be more obvious. (As opposed to stainless steel) FYI A sale lady told me that Abey pulled their gunmetal sink off the market. She wasn’t sure why but they where not happy with the product. If anyone can help re coloured spectra oliveri sinks i would love some feedback. As its undermount.. it wont be an easy task to replace.

answering your questions: change the sliding door to a bench height sliding window and use the salvaged sliding door in the western end of the dining room where the best entry position is for the deck, you MUST have a proper legal drains do not consider anything else...the drain pipe for the garage laundry can be on top of the concrete floor, behind the washing machine and through the sink cabinet and/or under built in storage and only needs a few cms not a whole floor and no stepped up area that you would see or trip over.. the laundry can't be in a separate room as there's not enough space for a separate laundry without compromising the size of the garage...a laundry cupboard 80 cm deep is enough for the washing machine (allowing for the drainage pipe) you could use the old line cupboard to store anything you want but it's not cost effective to change, the entry foyer is already as big as in many modern homes and there's generous flatpac biw space in the small study.... the family bathroom is 2380 x 2370 (ie the old study minus 1m for hall way and wall thickness and, arranged exactly as shown to allow for the wide window there should be space for a bath up to 1800 x 750, vanity about 1200 x 500 and shower space 1200 x 800 and leftover space makes the small linen cupboard with the door deliberately opening towards the shower to use the back of the door for hanging racks for towels and clothes....btw i understood your priority was maximizing separate sleeping rooms and minimising costs...my last plan has five separate sleeping rooms plus the lounge with sofa bed totalling sleeping places for at least 10 people plus the potential for bunks in the garage so you need to decide what is most important and where you're prepared to compromise

Unfortunately Erina, your best bet sometimes in this industry is to cut your losses and if it important enough to rectify, outsource a separate contractor/company to come in and re-do it at your own expense.....you just have to look at it as part of the cost of your project.......many people will have stories of deciding pay twice (sometimes more!) to eventually achieve the satisfactory results - ultimately you have to live with it long term and sometimes it's worth it to get it right....ultimately only you can make that decision one way or the other........it's not necessarily right or fair, but unfortunately these are the risks (& hard lessons) of building Best of luck Erina, PD :)