Sinking Feelings
I hope everyone had a fun Fourth of July. Though we did the usual cook-out and get-together with family, I also spent much of the three-day weekend wrestling with our downstairs lavatory sink.
This is a first for me. I’ve replaced faucets but never a sink. I do get a sinking feeling whenever I have to take on home improvement projects, especially those which involve plumbing since water pressure and I do not get along.
My projects have a tendency to grow out of proportion to what I originally planned to do . . . like this one. It started out simple. I had a badly leaking faucet. Tried to replace the washer but could not work the faucet handle free and my efforts threatened to rupture my plumbing. So I decided to replace the whole faucet as it was old anyway.
After turning off the water and pulling off the faucet hardware, I decided that maybe it was time to replace the sink too since it was cracked with something black and impervious to the strongest cleaning solvents growing in the cracks (either alien plasma or anti-matter sediment of some sort I figured). I loosened the locknut that I thought held the sink drain to the sink itself. But the sink still wouldn’t budge and my efforts again threatened to rupture my plumbing. Decided to call dad.
My father thought the metal drain piece at the bottom of the sink should unscrew somehow. So I tried unscrewing that but was unsuccessful. And again my efforts there threatened to . . . So I decided to remove the sink, drainpipe, AND the trap too. Now there was no more danger of my rupturing the plumbing. I’d taken it all out.
So now just a jaunt to the local Lowe’s to get a new sink to go with the vanity. That’s when wife Wendy and I found out that the sink that I just trashed was apparently the opposite of one-size-fits-all. It was the only sink its size ever made in the whole history of mankind. All the other sinks were too big or too small to fit on the top of our vanity.
It’s amazing all the different types of lavatory sinks you can buy now. No, we don’t want a pedestal sink. Nor a vessel sink, where the bowl sits atop your vanity rather than fits inside.
Now we’re trying to decide our next step. Continue looking for a replacement sink, possibly driving to Toledo and Menard’s? Perhaps deconstructing the vanity and putting in a new one, at which point Wendy thought we might as well have the floor replaced as well. And maybe even replace the upstairs bathroom floor since that’s old too.
Okay, maybe we should just go ahead and replace all the carpeting too as long as we’ve got the flooring people on the way. New kitchen cabinets, a new garage door opener . . . .
I think I want to move.
posted by Big Dave T @ 2:51 PM
12 Comments:
Opened up that can of worms, huh?
Our plumber loves do-it-yourselfers. Eventually he makes a lot more money he said.
Don says that plumbers (or wanna be plumbers) have a language all their own.
And Murphy always seems to be standing by for every plumbing job.
Cas
I hear you Dave-demo on Bath 1 starts in an hour. That will be the next 2-3 weeks, then Bath 2 will start.
major home repairs do not bring out the best in people.
But, as I told literally thousands of clients over a 5 year span: You will love it when it's over.
I thought that sort of thing happens only to women, like me, who think that we know enough to do anything a man can do. Hmmm. Maybe that's why it doesn't work for me!!!
My husband will not try anything that has to do with plumbing.....He tried that once and the words that came out of his mouth are considered upspeakable to me.....I told him that, from now own, we pay a plumber.
Good luck, Dave.
TECHNO--Thanks for visiting my blog. Not sure how to respond to your comment though.
JAN--I've heard that professional plumbers like amateurs. What the amateurs do increases the profits of the professionals who have to undo what the amateurs did.
CASSIE--With me, I think Murphy is not only standing by, he helps.
LYNILU--I don't think my wife would ever try something like this, though she has used the plumber's helper on occasion.
LUCY--I do try to watch my language as well but I do okay there. It's when "some assembly is required" that puts me in line for an extended stay in purgatory.
You continue to floor me with your vanity as you sink to new low(e)s.
At least you didn't have to remove the toilet, for then, even with your dad's input, you would have nothing to go on.
From Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: Be not afraid of groutness. Some are born grout, some achieve groutness, and some have groutness thrust upon them!*
*Groutness may also be substituted with GREENness, of course.
The grass is always GREENer on the other side, but, if you do decide to move from West Ypsilanti, I sink you consider East Lansing.*
*Deja-Moo: The feeling that you’ve heard this bull before.
BONNIE--Very punny as usual. Gee, haven't heard from you in a while. Maybe since that exciting Tarheel-Spartan match-up in the finals. That was the kind of game that probably had you sitting on th edge of your sofa from the first minute.
Our boy is finally retired, er, graduated from MSU, so we don't have to go there no more, no more.
I would go with a slightly larger sink. Just cut your opening a little bigger. The sink has a lip that rests on the counter top so be careful not to cut the opening to big.
ENFORCER--There really is no counter top, just the top of the frame of the vanity. So I can't cut the hole any bigger because I'd just be cutting the frame upon which the sink rests. The problem with a bigger sink, or bigger vanity, is that there is only about a 17-inch clearance for the bathroom door. If I get a sink any bigger, the door will hit it.
We're trying Menards today.
Post a Comment
<< Home