Kitchen Sink: Woes of the Happy Homeowner
We took the plunge Saturday and bought a new kitchen sink and faucet. The end result is beautiful!
You can never be fully prepared for sink replacement. We were of course, barely prepared, and our Saturday afternoon adventure went from an afternoon of fun to several days of sink-installation joy!
It began Saturday with a trip to Home Depot. We of course, measured our current sink so we knew what we were looking for, size wise. We picked a lovely stainless steel number, a great goose neck faucet with detachable sprayer. We purchased our newest family members and went home to create havoc in our kitchen. Installation was ranked 2 wrenches on our scale of 5 wrenches for difficulty in our home improvement book, with an estimated 5 hour install time for extremely dense beginners. This was not us, of course, I considered us to be intermediate, since we replaced the bathroom sink faucet and we are reasonably intelligent individuals.
My spouse was doubly smart, he took pictures of the current plumbing and connections, so we knew how everything went back together in the end. We broke the seal between our old sink and the counter and lifted out the 1,000 pound cast iron, ugly gray, stained sink, and it is now a fixture on my back patio. The old faucet was corroded and rotting away, it was so nasty, made me feel like bathing in bleach!
As we lift the new sink into the hole in my counter top, to our dismay, the new sink, doesn't fit. Our option at this point is cutting away the counter top. NOPE. Not going to do that, that is like 4 wrenches out of 5 in our handy dandy home improvement book, and frankly, I don't know if the counter top would hold up.
So off we go to the hardware store again, return the sink, and not finding nothing else, we head to another hardware store. It is now 5pm, the kids are screaming in the back, they are hungry, cranky, and sick of being cooped up in the van. We find another sink, stainless steel beauty, more money of course, that should work just perfect.
Kids are still screaming, we head home, stopping at Wendy's to keep them quiet for at least 5 minutes. As my boys are swallowing their dinner whole, and John and I are staring at the hole in the counter, we realized we are about an hour away from the 5 hour beginner mark indicated in our home improvement book. This is no good. Are we really beginners? Can't be.
To top it all off, the water is shut off, so you can't flush the toilet, wash your hands, or bathe the screaming, dirty kids. We stick the water connections in a bucket, because of course, the water shut offs that connect to the sink leak, turn the water on, run a tub for the boys, flush the toilet and wash our hands. Then instantly shut the water off again.
The sink we have now purchased, fits the whole and with a few minor rigging techniques, it'll do! We attach the new faucet, with a 1 year old, climbing in and out of the new sink, and an older brother trying to squeeze in as well. It is now almost 8pm. We started our project about 1pm, we have officially blown the beginner time frame out of the water and we haven't even got the sink set in the counter. Let the fun begin.
With the kids in bed, we caulk the hell out the sink, set in place, connect the plumbing and realize some of the pipes, need to be cut down, to fit. It was supposed to be a 2 wrench project according to the book, it has now turned into a 12 wrench project, which exceeds the 5 wrench difficulty level. We cut the pipe, and it all went together perfectly. John is thoroughly agitated, and now has to run to Wal-Mart, since Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace are closed, at least twice.
10:00 pm, I am so tired I can't stand, John has a bruise on his back from laying under the sink, and we are at the moment of truth. Turn the water on. Yes all, we had leaks! NOOOOOO!!
John spend another half an hour fine tuning the plumbing, and still has at least two leaks. One pipe is so corroded the rim was breaking off. Another trip to the hardware store but not until the next day.
Needless to say, last night we finally fixed the last leak, new pipe, new connections, spiffy! And NO LEAKS! YEAH! Originally this project was a 2 wrenches on the 5 wrenches of difficulty and a beginner time of 5 hours as dictated by our handy dandy home improvement book. We estimate it was really a 5 wrench project and 3 day time frame for those of us with the intellect of monkeys. We will be burning this book later today.
Note to self 1:
Pay someone to install new sink and faucet next time
Note to self 2:
Never follow the handy dandy home improvement guide again
Note to self 3:
It is easier to move than do home improvement
You can never be fully prepared for sink replacement. We were of course, barely prepared, and our Saturday afternoon adventure went from an afternoon of fun to several days of sink-installation joy!
It began Saturday with a trip to Home Depot. We of course, measured our current sink so we knew what we were looking for, size wise. We picked a lovely stainless steel number, a great goose neck faucet with detachable sprayer. We purchased our newest family members and went home to create havoc in our kitchen. Installation was ranked 2 wrenches on our scale of 5 wrenches for difficulty in our home improvement book, with an estimated 5 hour install time for extremely dense beginners. This was not us, of course, I considered us to be intermediate, since we replaced the bathroom sink faucet and we are reasonably intelligent individuals.
My spouse was doubly smart, he took pictures of the current plumbing and connections, so we knew how everything went back together in the end. We broke the seal between our old sink and the counter and lifted out the 1,000 pound cast iron, ugly gray, stained sink, and it is now a fixture on my back patio. The old faucet was corroded and rotting away, it was so nasty, made me feel like bathing in bleach!
As we lift the new sink into the hole in my counter top, to our dismay, the new sink, doesn't fit. Our option at this point is cutting away the counter top. NOPE. Not going to do that, that is like 4 wrenches out of 5 in our handy dandy home improvement book, and frankly, I don't know if the counter top would hold up.
So off we go to the hardware store again, return the sink, and not finding nothing else, we head to another hardware store. It is now 5pm, the kids are screaming in the back, they are hungry, cranky, and sick of being cooped up in the van. We find another sink, stainless steel beauty, more money of course, that should work just perfect.
Kids are still screaming, we head home, stopping at Wendy's to keep them quiet for at least 5 minutes. As my boys are swallowing their dinner whole, and John and I are staring at the hole in the counter, we realized we are about an hour away from the 5 hour beginner mark indicated in our home improvement book. This is no good. Are we really beginners? Can't be.
To top it all off, the water is shut off, so you can't flush the toilet, wash your hands, or bathe the screaming, dirty kids. We stick the water connections in a bucket, because of course, the water shut offs that connect to the sink leak, turn the water on, run a tub for the boys, flush the toilet and wash our hands. Then instantly shut the water off again.
The sink we have now purchased, fits the whole and with a few minor rigging techniques, it'll do! We attach the new faucet, with a 1 year old, climbing in and out of the new sink, and an older brother trying to squeeze in as well. It is now almost 8pm. We started our project about 1pm, we have officially blown the beginner time frame out of the water and we haven't even got the sink set in the counter. Let the fun begin.
With the kids in bed, we caulk the hell out the sink, set in place, connect the plumbing and realize some of the pipes, need to be cut down, to fit. It was supposed to be a 2 wrench project according to the book, it has now turned into a 12 wrench project, which exceeds the 5 wrench difficulty level. We cut the pipe, and it all went together perfectly. John is thoroughly agitated, and now has to run to Wal-Mart, since Home Depot, Lowes, and Ace are closed, at least twice.
10:00 pm, I am so tired I can't stand, John has a bruise on his back from laying under the sink, and we are at the moment of truth. Turn the water on. Yes all, we had leaks! NOOOOOO!!
John spend another half an hour fine tuning the plumbing, and still has at least two leaks. One pipe is so corroded the rim was breaking off. Another trip to the hardware store but not until the next day.
Needless to say, last night we finally fixed the last leak, new pipe, new connections, spiffy! And NO LEAKS! YEAH! Originally this project was a 2 wrenches on the 5 wrenches of difficulty and a beginner time of 5 hours as dictated by our handy dandy home improvement book. We estimate it was really a 5 wrench project and 3 day time frame for those of us with the intellect of monkeys. We will be burning this book later today.
Note to self 1:
Pay someone to install new sink and faucet next time
Note to self 2:
Never follow the handy dandy home improvement guide again
Note to self 3:
It is easier to move than do home improvement
posted by Leslie | 2:16 PM
1 Comments:
Leslie, Thanks for the honesty. It's good to know that others have as much fun with home improvement as we do. I've been catching up on your blog and laughing alot. Thanks!
Jonas
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