Tuesday, September 9, 2014

...and the kitchen sink

A month ago when I was in Tennessee helping Mom out around their new house, we took a trip to their local ReStore.

It was amazing. In some ways, life changing. They had all kinds of wonderful things from their area (which is surrounded by younger neighborhoods) that were barely used if not new. They also had a familiar Time And Relative Dimension In Space ship towards the back of the store that made me "SQUEEEE" for the rest of the visit.


As part of their inventory from this planet and time period, though, they had some impressive pieces. Large new windows, lots of window inserts for garage doors, and sinks. The sinks were all in pretty good shape and high in variety. They had some cast iron and white porcelain ones that were priced right. I managed to talk myself out of the purchase, though, and left empty handed (I did leave with my geeky heart was full).

Since my parents recently made another trip up to work on their future abode, they swung by the ReStore again and sent me a couple of pictures of any sinks that might interest me. One in particular was in great condition, the right size, and was only $45. Three days later, they pulled up in the driveway with a car full of everything...and the kitchen sink.

Scott and Dad decided to start installing it while Mom and I were running errands, so the pictures are kind of jumbled. I'll relay the play by play as it was described to me:

The old sink was not a looker. It was stainless steal, but very difficult to keep clean and always covered in water spots.


They began by turning off the water and dismantling the faucet.


Scott then played plumber underneath the sink and disconnected all of the hoses and pipes so that they old sink could come free of the counter without those hang ups.


When they tried to pull the old sink away from the hole, there was a bit of an issue. Not only was our old sink barely held in place, but there were rusted clips underneath that were more than happy to stubbornly stay put. Thank goodness we have tools like the Dremel to literally cut through those issues.


Once those were removed, so was the old sink. It had certainly seen better days.

Imagine food prep in this. Tasty.

Honestly, the kitchen already looked better with the old sink gone. (For anyone interested, this handsome disaster is on sale at our local ReStore for all of $10. Yikes!)


Once everything was kind of cleaned up, the new sink was brought in. We had measured it previously to make sure we wouldn't have to widen the hole in the counter, so we didn't really need to dry fit before installing.


The faucet base parts were attached to the new sink, and once the plumbers putty had been used around the hole, the it could be lowered in. The boys were glad to have it immediately off to the side because cast iron weighs a ton.


They managed to get it in without incident or smashed fingers.


After grabbing a couple of pieces of new PVC (so they would be easier to fit together), Scott crawled back into the cabinet to hook everything back up.


The rest of the faucet was reattached and we checked for leaks. After some minor adjustments, it was done!


Well...sort of...

It was still a used sink. It needed a little polishing.


Thankfully some Barkeeper's Friend cut right through the gross and we were set up to cook and clean in no time. I replaced the water filter, put the drying rack in the second basin, and we called it a day.


What a great find for $45! It is so nice to use because it just feeeeeeels clean.


(Thanks to Dad, Mom, and Scott aside from the normal DSLR for all the pictures in this post. Everyone had camera phones out for this one!)

Update: I have also managed to add two more finished doors to our hallway! It's hard to get a good picture of all three of them, so I'll just show you the cute half door that goes into the linen closet.

Aww.




The other door completed is to our bedroom. I'm thinking the master bath and the office doors will probably be next.

If you don't follow us on Facebook, you might not have seen the quick project I completed yesterday!


Pssst, it's made of straws, wire, and spray paint! You can find the tutorial to make one yourself here.

 http://www.vintagerevivals.com/2014/01/geometric-himmeli-wreath-2-0.html



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