Appliances Sink and Mailbox

So I brought Ilisa and Mom into the store to help finalize our appliances. As you might have read before I was big on the Bosch stuff. We're still going with the glass cook top, but when Ilisa saw the matching oven, she just didn't think it looked that great! Most of it came down to the look of the Microwave oven which goes above the wall oven. In the Bosch it looked like more of an afterthought, like a standard counter top microwave with tacky flashing around the edges so they can call it built in. So we decided to go for the Kitchen Aid Combo wall unit (http://www.kitchenaid.com/catalog/product.jsp?src=Built-in+Ovens&cat=124&prod=1342). And as luck would have it, Pacific Sales happened to have a returned unit at almost half price! Us Goldman's hate to pass up a bargain. The only defect we can see is a scratch on the hand of the oven, which is no big deal, because we usually keep a dish towel draped over that anyways for hand drying. So we got a $3600 combo unit for ~$2000. Plus one could say that we are recycling this unit since the carbon footprint has already been paid for by the original buyer. Oh and that's the nice salesman (Corey Funk, what a great name!) that hooked us up with everything.
Here's our kitchen sink that we all decided on (http://www.frankeksd.com/productdetail.php?prodid=299&node=10&group=53&lvl=-1). We went away from the two sink idea. I've found that to be able to easily put an entire lasagna pan into the sink and let it soak overnight is key to keeping water spills off the counter top. Plus Franke has lots of great accessories like cutting boards and drop in temporary 2nd sinks that really make this a great adaptable product. In this photo you can see the grate that fits right in, so your dishes actually sit a bit off the bottom and keep the sink cleaner.
We also looked at other materials for the kitchen sink, but when I call Ori @ Greenmaker to ask him, he said that SS is often made from recycled materials, and has a very high recyclable content.
Here's our mailbox. Not Ilisa's first choice, nor necessarily mine for color or design. What sold me on it (I'm looking at you Workshop 44) was the Zach Meyer's Symbol on the front. This is also the same symbol that was on my front door of the house I grew up in in Northbrook, IL. Just goes to show that nostalgia can easily out win any environmental, functional, or design criteria.