Kitchen Update

I've had a lot of fun since my last post. Well, fun may not be the word, but I didn't want to use the words I really felt like. This photo shows the corner where the lazy susan is. It shows some detail on the old counter top and the oak bull nose edge. It just happens to also show a little bit of the sink, mostly hidden under the plastic on the right side.

Before I could move forward on preparing the counter top for the granite, I had to take out the sink. This is a Kohler cast iron that weighs about 80 pounds, and the way you take it out is to peel out that chrome strip around the edge and then the sink is loose. The problem is that I did not know exactly how it would come out so after removing the faucet, the disposal, and disconnecting the drain lines I started ripping out the chrome strip. All of the sudden I had enough of it peeled out and the sink dropped like a huge rock into the cabinet underneath. In the process it snapped off the part of the drain line that came in through the wall.

The pipe goes out the side and then curves and goes into the wall. Since it was glued in I realized that the only option I had was to open up the wall and cut away the whole section and replace it. (The wall is straight up and down, not slanted like this picture appears.)

The problem was that the pipe I had to cut away was behind the lazy susan, and so to get to it I had to take it apart and take out the shelves and the large piece of masonite that surrounded it so that stuff won't fall off and get lost back in the unreachable corners.

Then I could get to the place where the pipe was (after I cut away some more of the sheet rock).

When the sink dropped and broke the pipe I told Jeanne that we had just added two weeks to the job. Fortunately, it turns out I probably spent less than about 5 or 6 hours of actual work to fix it. Of course with the limited time I have available it still added several days to it.

Once that was fixed I could move forward and we started putting on the hardibacker so we could get the tile down.

In the photo of the sink opening you can see some detail of the Hardibacker on the top and on the front apron. You can also see the new pipe coming in from the break I had to fix. On the right you can see the granite tile. The tape is there to hold the apron pieces on while the thinset dries.

As I write this we have actually removed all the masking tape and even done quite a bit of painting of the kitchen where the cabinets and backsplash will not be covering the walls. We have a guy coming on Saturday to bull nose and polish the edges of the tiles. We can't wait. Naturally, we will post photos.

Remember, If you want to see the photos in more detail, simply click on them and they will enlarge to full size.