Another "Simple" Project

This weekend, I made it my goal to do a couple of simple projects around the house. First, I needed to break up the old fence I had just replace and take it to the city recycle center. That was done in the morning. No big deal.

Second, my wife had been asking me to take a look at the kitchen faucet, which had now become very hard to swivel the spout. Should not have been a big deal. It should have been simply removing the faucet, taking it apart and fixing whatever was causing the sticking. I say "should have", because, once again, a simple project took on a life of its own and became not so simple.

The problems started when I was having trouble loosening the nut holding the faucet to the sink. It was located in a tight space and I thought the issue had to do with not being able to get good leverage on it. The solution, I decided, was to remove the sink. This sink is one of those heavy, cast iron sinks with an enamel coating. I had removed it once before and it was that big of a deal. I had already disconnected the water lines going to the faucet, so I only needed to disconnect the drain tail piece and use a paint scraper to cut through the caulk that glued the sink to the counter.

Fear and trembling should have been my response when my wife, upon hearing my plan to remove the sink, announced, "Well, if you are going to remove the sink, why don't we go ahead a get a new one. I don't like this one anyway." These words usually spell project doom (not that she causes the doom, it just seems to happen that way). However, I was not thinking clearly and said OK (must have been from laying on my back too long under the sink, straining to loosen that nut). She also suggested a new counter top, but I drew the line there.

Once the sink was out (which is very heavy by the way), I applied all the leverage I could get on that nut, but it still would not budge. Finally, I wised up and sprayed some WD-40 on it. About a minute later, I was able to easily unscrew the nut. After freeing the faucet from the sink, I proceeded to attempt to take it apart. I removed the only hex screw that was visible. I was then able to remove part of the faucet but failed to be able to disassemble it enough to get at the area where I thought the sticking was occurring. I was afraid to provide too much brute force lest I tear it up. So, we decided we would buy a new faucet too.

After loading up the kids, we sped our way to our local Lowes. There Stephanie picked out a new faucet and a shiny new stainless steel sink. On the way home we devised a strategy to allow me to work in peace. Stephanie dropped me at home and to the kids to McDonalds to eat and play in the indoor play ground. She would bring me home supper when they returned.

I set to work immediately, unpacking the new faucet and the new sink. And to my horror, I almost immediately discovered that the hole in the counter left by the old sink was smaller than the one needed by the new sink. We had gotten the same size sink to replace the old one. However, the old sink relied on its considerable weight and caulk to hold it in place, with no issues. The new stainless steel sink was very light and so required the use of clips underneath it to hook onto the bottom of the counter to secure it (caulk was just for water proofing). This had not even crossed my mind. The clips hooked into a rail system on the bottom side of the sink and where these rails were located was beyond the edge of the existing hole.

So, there was nothing left to do but some demolition. By the time Stephanie and the kids had returned, I had used a jigsaw, a circular saw, a belt sander and a mallet and chisel in an effort to get the hole the right size. There was saw dust everywhere! This was certainly not what she expected. But by nine p.m. I had the opening big enough to fit the sink in.

Here's some of the issues I dealt with:

• I had to use the mallet and chisel along the back edge of the sink opening because neither my jigsaw nor my circular saw had a narrow enough foot on them to be able to cut the strip of counter between the hole and the back splash.
  
• On the front edge, I had to be careful in enlarging it because the hole edge was even with the back of the cabinets. So I had to set the circular saw blade shallow enough that it cut through the counter top but not the cabinets.
• Due to the issue above, there was no counter top bottom for the clips along the front edge of the sink to grip on.
  
• In my test fittings of the sink, I noticed that the counter top thickness must not be the current standard. It was too thick for the clips on the bottom of the sink to fit under and grip.

At that point, once I got the sink fitted, my wife wisely advised that I call it a night. I did. The rest would have to wait until Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon, I spent chiseling out spots for the clips on the sides to hook onto - making the counter top thinner at those points. The back had plenty of points that were thinner because of the chiseling I had already done. Since the counter top is made of particle board, it tends to crumble under chiseling.

I also came up with a solution for how to engage the front clips. Actually, I think God must have helped me with that. I put three corresponding screws on the backside of the front of the cabinet (where they could not be seen) and affixed wires from the three clips long enough the reach the screws. I installed the new faucet and soap pump while the sink was out. A clear, quick-setting caulk was applied next. Then the sink was positioned in place. While I worked under the sink, my wife helped by applying pressure on it from above. I tightened the clips on the back and sides. Then I wrapped the ends of the wires around the screws and tightened the clips. I had positioned the top end of the wires over the ends of the clips so that when I tightened down of the clip screws, the wires would be tightened. It worked great.

Now that the sink was secured, I attached the water lines, installed the drain and attached the drain tail piece. Then came the test. I turned on the water cut off valves and turned on the water slowly. Everything worked! I checked for leaks and there were none!

We had purchased one of those faucets where the spout pulls out on a hose. The instructions on the faucet said, prior to connecting the actual spout, to run the water on full through the hose to flush any debris. Once I had checked for leaks, I decided to do the full power flush. I must have been tired from the two days of labor because I was not thinking as I pushed the faucet lever to full, without holding on to the hose. Yup, you guessed it, that hose came alive, lifted up and blasted a stream of water across the kitchen in the one to two seconds before I realized my error and shut the water off. I just had to laugh at myself.

Now, the sink is in full operational order. Just ask my wife has been diligently washing everything that was covered in sawdust. See my wife's blog on this project.

P.S. For those who, out of the kindness of their hearts for my wife, might want to drop hints or suggestions about, or pave the way for, other home improvement projects for me to do (you know who you are), I just have this comment. She does not need your help. She does just fine on her own, coming up with a never-ending list of things for me to do. :-)

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