Saturday, December 31, 2011

And....Yer OUT!

 One thing I've learned from watching HGTV is that you should do home improvement when you're planning on living there and can enjoy it; don't wait until you're trying to sell.

Another thing I have learned, I learned shortly after moving into my house, and that is: acrylic sinks don't take well to hot oil being poured in them.  In fact, acrylic sinks don't hold up well to a lot of things, and I do a lot of things in my kitchen.  I'm certain they're more than acceptable for those who use their sinks only to dump what's left of their day-old bottled water.  But this guy was not in great shape when I moved in and he was fading fast.  See this picture?  How nasty it looks?  That's clean.  That's bleached thoroughly a week ago.  Yuck!
So I removed it.

the underside: THIS SINK IS TOO THIN!












And, after scraping off the big blobs of caulk(???) from the counter (and a lot of other nastiness) I headed to the home improvement store to procure a new sink and faucet.  All of the appliances are white, but I decided to go with stainless steel, due to its durability, and hoped that it would be a neutral and not matter.



As all home improvement projects do, it became a bigger hairier deal than I could have anticipated, and involved nearly every tool I own, but I can proudly say that I did NOT get silicone in my hair (although it got everywhere else), and the project is complete to my satisfaction*.  I'll spare you the details.  Suffice it to say all of my muscles from the knees up are tired and sore from reaching and posing under the sink, and my fingertips are tender from all the shenanigans required to install the clips that hold the sink to the counter.  I'm resting now, in case you care.

I think the stainless looks fine, indeed a kitchen neutral, and I love having a small side and a gigantic side.  And I'm certain they are of a greater volume than the old sink.  I don't care if it's not really true, I choose to believe it.  I also love that the spray hose is not tangled in the water supply hoses like the old one and I can pull it out more than a foot.


* If/when this sink comes out someone will wonder what the heck was going on with this, much as I wonder about the caulk glob and spray hose situations.  However, I'm confident that this sink will outlast the counter and it won't matter anymore.

1 comments:

LoriOnLTB said...

The new sink looks fabulous!