Remodeling The Kitchen - When You Stop Counting The Weeks

Well, this has been quite a journey, hasn't it?  Sinks and sub floors, tile and cabinets, saws and drills Oh and BRAD not to be confused with Brad Pitt mind you but the battery powered brad gun that we have all come to know and love around here. Yes, it has been a long and educational journey.

I can't even begin to tell you what week we are on with the kitchen job but it is at least a million, isn't it? And I just know that I should be nominated for some amazing award like the purple heart of the DIY world and any day someone is going to knock at the door and show me the beautiful shiny (it has to be pretty, right?) award. Sigh...  This entire process has been one step forward and a hundred back with crooked contractors and shoddy workmanship to meeting some really great people that will hopefully be lifelong friends.

Right now we are up against the calendar as Mr. Cottage has to go for training for his new job and we need to get this done before said company demands his attention and his person elsewhere. This to be covered in another post.

We have all the cabinets built and installed and were under the misguided idea that we were ready for the counters (insert laughter). We are all really just want to get this over with so we can have a sink back. For the last few weeks we have been using plywood for counters and although it is not glamorous or really fun (those splinters hurt!) the truth is that they are a flat surface and are amazing. But a sink my friends... ahhhhh a sink. You see the bathroom sinks are really shallow and the counters almost non-existent and the faucet very low so it has made doing dishes... ah hem, interesting. So, at this time we are still having to do dishes out in the back yard and with temperatures dipping into the teens at night this has become not so fun. 

No longer can I try to amuse my senses with, "But look, it's like camping only better because you don't get eaten by a bear or get sprayed by a skunk." Ok, that really never worked but it was better during the warm summer months and I was determined not to complain. But I must say summer is long gone and fall is a memory. We have even had a bit of ice /snow and this is not fun and I can't even remember the minute that it was fun but, I have tried to put on a brave face. I know... I have lost my happy place, right? Sigh. 

But doing dishes outside reminds me of all of those times I had to read Little House to the girls and them having to break the ice from the water basin in the morning to wash their faces and waking up with snow on their blankets and me acting like, "Oh, how charming" with the girls while inside thinking - Can NOT imagine having to do this.  (God has a sense of humor because that winter we lost power for about four days and I had to cook breakfast lunch and dinner in the fireplace - which I might never have thought of if it had not been for that repeated reading of said little abode in a terrible location that gets horrible winters.) 

Deep breath. Continue.

We drilled holes in the back and the right-hand side of the sink base to allow for the hot and cold water, the drainage for the sink and the water lines to the dishwasher and drain lines to the same. For this, we used a 1" hole saw for the hot and cold water and for the drainage we used a 2 1/2" hole saw. For the dishwasher, we used 1 1/4 and 1. To cover the holes and to surround the pipes we used these shallow flanges. 

OK, so we thought we were about done and didn't know if we would install the sink or the counter people that we had still not chosen. Boy, it is really HARD to have those guys get back to you! We finally found out it was all us so with the date careening for Mr. Cottages training we headed for the sink box in the foyer (Hey, don't judge, this has been a long process and where do you keep your monster sink?) Up until this point we never even took the sink out of the box. I did look at it (for a moment) to make sure it was the one I ordered (see sink fiasco here, here and here) and then closed the box not even wanting to look at it at that point. Oh look, there it is. It's a sink. Close it!

After we got the sink base built and were needing to get the sink in to prepare for the counters we opened the box again and pulled out the beast. Should a sink be so heavy?  I mean, what happens when I fill this baby with water?  Is it going to crash around my feet?

What we bought was a Magnus 33" apron front stainless steel farm sink. We were told from the cabinet company that we didn't want to go any larger than a 33" sink with a 36" base cabinet and while that made no sense to my brain at the time... I get it now.  At the time I was worried about there being a big gap to the left and right of the apron front but, now I understand that some things only God understands (and maybe your cabinet person... Thanks, Sophia! ).

So there we are pulling the sink out of the big box and removing the styrofoam, cardboard, plastic, etc and hefting it over the island and hovering it over the top of the sink base and lowering it gently down on the said base.  We found (with looks of true horror on our faces) that the front of the 36" apron sink base cabinet was not deep enough and the sink stood up 3 1/16" over the top edge of the cabinet.

So without much deliberation, we carried the beast back over to the box and put her back inside and then dumbly looked at one another (secretly wanting to kick the thing but knowing that it would probably break my foot with my luck and I didn't need that pain too. This was already too painful.) At this point, we were really happy that we didn't get the fireclay sink after all because all of this lugging of the sink... well we knew it would have been way heavier!

There is no photo of us putting in the sink because we frankly had no extra hands to hold it and take pictures too (and who wants to see a grown man cry?) The sink weighs about 45# and it has sharp edges that make holding it... interesting. 

We contacted the cabinet people and when we described the trouble they thought they had given us an older model cabinet that was more shallow in the front and offered to put a new one in the mail but  with it being so near the holidays and the mail being so far behind and since Mr. Cottage had worked his last day at his job and was off of work he decided to go with his daughter and pick up the right one. So off they drove and fought the traffic back home but soon realized when he got home that it was the same exact cabinet.  We talked to the cabinet place again and gave them the information and found out that we had to cut the front of the cabinet out to make room for the 10" deep sink because the base was made for a 6" deep sink. It also didn't have a shelf or support system to support the under mount sink so we had to build that. Yeah...

So, we had to figure out how to cut the cabinet front without destroying it or making me want to cry which was already too late. So we returned the new cabinet and planned on how to cut the front of the existing one. Mr. Cottage started pulling out his tools to determine the correct one for the job and then determined by keen skills and great deductive reasoning that every tool loving man must have he didn't have the right tools and needed to order another one for the job (WHOO HOOOOO another trip to the hardware store!).

A family member (Thanks, Jennifer) recommended getting this saw to make a clean cut of the cabinet face. We were all scared stiff to mess it up. We measured about a zillion times to make sure we didn't mess it up and then threw in a couple more times to make sure we got it right (You have done that before, right?). Then it was a matter of just saying a prayer and doing it. Tomorrow...

I think truly that Mr. Cottage just likes to have an excuse to go to Lowes at least 10 times a day and then at the end of the day say, "Whew! I am sure tired... time for bed!"

Shhhh... don't tell him that I am onto his plot. He thinks he is slick and has me tricked. 

So, the next day he measures again, tapes up the thing with painters tape and fires up the beast. There is no way to truly describe to you the sound of a saw cutting into the face of your new kitchen cabinet or the smell of burning wood wafting through your living room after you walk out not able to even look at what is happening to that cabinet so I guess I will leave this alone. There was much groaning and growling from the general direction of the kitchen and then another admission that we need yet another trip to the ... all together now...

Hardware Store to buy a bigger blade.

Yep, that is me

So after the trip to the hardware store number whatever that day he was able to cut the base and after much stress here is the sink base with her crown jewel in it. 

He went in with 2x4s and made a support system to hold the sink safely and here it sits. 

But, in all seriousness, we have not just had times where we wanted to cry or just throw something but there have been moments of laughter and fun (can I call it fun?) in all of this. We are making memories here, and that is a good thing.
Now, onto the molding.

And counter tops.

New to our story check out weeks 1,2,3,4,6,7,13,14, 15, 16 , 17, 18 & 22 .You can also find more of our DIY articles in our DIY Tab. 

This article contains affiliate links. Affiliate links cost you nothing extra but help to support the Rosevine Cottage Girls so we can continue bringing you recipes, travel posts, garden and farm posts and so much more.