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Mainly the reason is, I think, the delicate teacups and similar items won’t break if they fall into the washing up bowl whereas the sink is a lot harder and could break items more easily,
I admit that I used to be but now I’m a rinse-and-bung-in-the-dishwasher-until-its-full person. 
Single bowl. It is smart to do renovations, clearing out, staging, etc for any place you will soon sell. Butcher block has wide appeal and is a smart play.
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For some buyers, the copper sink will cause some potential buyers to walk away. It is one thing to buy a copper sink because you love it and will live with it. It is another to make that choice when staging to sale.
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Rule 1 is “avoid possible objections”. Many buyers now do not want to “paint a room” or “swap a sink” after buying. They want to just move in and bring a toothbrush.
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If your real estate agent says, “oh don’t worry about that copper sink - it is a lovely choice” then they are lying and just want the contract.
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Yeah you said that you are dead set on it. That is perfect if it will be your place for years. Not for sale. All that matters is appeal to potential buyers.
That will be fine. Not every house will appeal to every buyer. This is not a starter home—it’s an elegant, more upscale, traditional style home built in 1935. I expect the buyers for this house will not be a young couple or young family.
I am a strong believer in the interior of the house “matching” the exterior in terms of general style. I really dislike it when someone takes, say, a colonial style house and makes the kitchen look super modern in style. If a modern looking kitchen is your jam, then I think you should put it in a modern style house.
That’s probably a controversial view, but my record on selling houses is pretty good. The last house I sold we priced aggressively yet had multiple offers over asking and sold in under 24 hours. I renovated the kitchen in my mother-in-law’s house back in 2015 and sold it with almost the same result—multiple offers in just 2 days of being listed. I did her kitchen in a more modern style because the house was a modern house, for example.
You aren’t going to appeal to every buyer no matter what your style, the design choices or the paint colors. I’m a former real estate agent; I understand these things pretty well. I know buyers are looking for move in ready. But I refuse to do generic, cookie cutter design just because it will appeal to the widest range of buyers. If a copper sink keeps someone from buying this house, so be it.
I’m appreciate you are trying to keep me from making what you view as an error. Thanks for that.
Final count, 8 for single, 4 for double. I’d love to do the asymmetrical double bowl but I’m not paying over 1k for a sink and it would take up too much room. We need to stick with a smaller sink because of the limited counter space.
This is a smallish kitchen with an odd layout—it’s L shaped. It’s got an attached breakfast nook with a bit of counter space—6 feet long by 10 inches deep—that works perfectly as a place for the coffee maker, electric kettle, and toaster. In the kitchen itself there is a section by the fridge that’s 2 feet square. The main counter is L shaped with the long section being 7 feet and a bit, and the short section being about 4 feet. The 7 and a bit for section will have the sink in the middle of it. Given that the counter space is so limited, we’ve decided to do the 25 inch single bowl. There may be room for a small island if it’s on wheels and can be moved easily when necessary.
All this is to say that this house isn’t going to appeal to someone who lives to cook. I think the buyer for this house will be someone for whom the aesthetics are more important that the actual cooking space.
We do exist!
Thanks for all the thoughts and opinions! Much appreciated!
I’m so with you there, from my own experience. My house in Canada was an interesting one- it had at one point been 2 houses, one of which was moved there and attached at some point. The place was about 80 years old when I bought it in 1982. It had 3 bedrooms upstairs, one down, one small bathroom, and the kitchen was galley-style, dark, and small. It was sitting in the dirt on rotted wooden foundations, needed plumbing and electrical upgrades, and insulation, and the whole place needed tons of work.
I don’t know how you’d characterize the style- it had a couple of stained glass windows in the porch and entry door, shiplap fir walls in some parts, wooden shingle outer walls and roof. Interior doors much like yours. The downstairs floors were tongue-in-groove fir, the upstairs just fir boards. It was quite the hodge podge.
Between govt. grants that were available for essential upgrades, like a proper foundation, electric and plumbing and insulating, having a couple boyfriends in a row who were carpenters (I didn’t choose them on that basis, honest) and my interest and skills in renovations, it slowly got revamped over the 18 years I lived there, keeping the original feel of the place intact. We took out some walls to open up the downstairs space, and built an addition on the back to push out the kitchen and change the kitchen layout. I found old windows and beams at demolition resale places that fit the era and style of the house.
When I went to put it on the market, the real estate agent told me I should repaint the whole interior white and I’d be really lucky to get $230,000CAN for it. I listed at $265,000, which the agent argued about.
I had put a lot of work over the years into the paint job- used lots of colors and almost no white and there was no way I was repainting.
The very first people who came to view it said they had been looking for a cool old house like that for 2 years, said “we love the colors!” and put an offer in on the spot. We negotiated to $255,000.
They have put a lot of work and money into it since they bought it in 2010, but what I’m really happy about is that they haven’t tried to make it look “modern”- they just did things I couldn’t afford to do, like reshingle the outside and put on a new roof. They also built a mother-in-law suite echoing the style of the house at the back of the yard, and took down the rotting old shed. I don’t know what they’ve done inside, but I suspect it isn’t shiny modern.
There were so many modern generic houses on the market, but I just knew the right person would come along for mine, because it was unique. I never did anything to the house with resale value in mind, I just did what I personally liked and what suited the style.
Agree. I have a dishwasher and a big single bowl, and I wish I’d gone with the double for precisely that reason i.e. a bowl to put dirty dishes, and another to wash when the other is in use.