A week or so ago I decided I would check out some of the open houses in the
neighborhood. I only went to the most expensive houses. Each of the four
had a recently redone kitchen. Each had a single large farmhouse sink (aka
front apron sink).

Why are these so in these days? It isn't for looks. The continuity of the
cabinets is broken with the large white wart. Do people now find that
fireclay is better than stainless steel? (Though some of them are stainless
and other materials.) If the kitchen only has one sink, I see such a large
one a negative. It takes more water to fill, if you want to do something
like wash spinach. If you have large pots, depth is more important than
sink size. (The farmhouse sinks are deep, but they don't have an exclusive
on that.) Do people find larger better as they want to be able to wash a
child or large dog?

One advantage I could see is I think the sink is closer to you. There is no
counter between you and the sink, and the front is pretty much straight
down. Is this why?

I decided I should do some searching. If stone, stainless, copper or
bamboo, your belt buckle could scratch it. They are very hard to design
around. If you install a large disposer it is near the front and makes it
harder to get to the space behind. The rounded edges are a perfect conduit
for water to flow over the edge, down the face, and under to the cabinet
doors. And apparently such sinks never actually existed in farm houses.
They always had free standing sinks, often with drain boards on the side,
like this: http://www.signaturehardware.com/product4985

The only positive I could find is nostalgia. But how many people around
today grew up in a farmhouse?

Don. www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).