New House Blog: Episode XI - That Sinking Feeling

Welcome to Episode XI.  What the title means is that we did some sinking recently, and some fauceting and disposing and piping, too.  Before we get into the actual work I'd like to take a few moments to pause and reflect on my general experiences working on this house.

This house project has been a great learning experience for me.  I've been able to learn some new skills.  I've been able to revisit and expand some old, dormant skills.  Before we bought this house I had never swapped out an electrical outlet, and the last time I had done any drywall repair was in the 8th grade.  I've done a little basic plumbing work, but never to the extent that I have thus far on our house.  It's nice knowing that I can change or move an outlet if needed.  It's empowering to know that I can make holes in walls and patch them up.  Some jobs we're willing to let others do (we'll talk about flooring in a future Episode), but for the most part  we prefer to do what we can ourselves.  The main drawback to this approach is the time needed - time that could be spent blogging.

Sinking

Our house came with a sink.  It actually came with four, but only the kitchen sink is being talked about at this time.  The kitchen sink was a decent dual-bowl (one of those divided sinks with two compartments and two drain holes), stainless steel, top mount job that would probably have been adequate.  However, we have gotten used to, and really prefer, using a single-bowl sink.  So the old sink left the kitchen (Know anyone who needs a sink?  It's in really good shape.)  On our sink-buying trip to Home Depot we picked out a nice 8" deep sink and we brought it to our house.  Upon trying to fit said sink into our sink-hole we discovered that I, Bish, had gotten the wrong measurement in my head.  We bought a 25"x22" sink, but our sink-hole is for a 33"x22" sink. Sadly, the selection of single-bowl sinks of this size is severely limited at Home Depot, and by, "limited," we mean that there's only one to choose, and it comes with a faucet.  Despite its coming with a faucet (we had already purchased a different faucet), we chose this behemoth of a sink and installed it.  Pictures are below.  Sadly, we did not get any pictures of the old sink while it was installed.  However, if you are interested in the old sink pictures of it after removal can be provided.

The giant sink-hole

The new giant sink

This is the hole where the sink lives.  Note that the water is turned off in this picture.  The clear plastic taped down below is meant to be a moisture barrier, just in case...




It looks much bigger in-person.





Fauceting

There was a brand-new-looking faucet in the kitchen, but we didn't really like it, so we replaced it.  We chose our new faucet before we chose our new sink, and  like the sink it is a modern, contemporary design.  It is quite tall, it is lever-action, and it has a nozzle thingy on a hose that pulls out of the end of the faucet.  It had the option of one-hole or three-hole mouting, and we chose the three-hole since our sink has so many mounting holes to fill.  We also installed a little auxiliary faucet in the fourth mounting hole.  Eventually this will be connected to our eSpring water purifier (the world's best source of water), which is still needed at our apartment.  As with the door knobs, we chose a satin-type finish for our faucet.  Picture below.

Disposing

Our house also came with a food waste disposal unit (aka garbage disposal), but it was gritty, grimy, and completely non-functional, so we replaced it with a brand new Insinkerator Badger 900 3/4hp unit.  It seems like Insinkerator pretty much owns the food waste disposal business, at least in this area, and they are pretty crafty folks.  During the installation of the new unit we got to a point in the instructions that said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory), "Insert the wire holder (not included), then insert the power cord (not included).  Secure the three wires to the disposal with wire nuts (not included)."  So I made a list of the "not included" items and went out again to Home Depot.  I thought I would have to buy the things separately, but it turns out that Insinkerator has a kit that includes exactly what I needed.  Convenient, and a sneaky way to grab a few extra dollars from customers.  Our new Badger 900 runs smoothly and quietly so far.  You can see it by scrolling past the picture of the old unit.

It was much grimier in-person.

Look at all that plumbers putty.

Technical specs

Piping

The intake lines, shutoff valves, and drain lines were all old, and most were leaky, so we replaced them all - new intake lines, new shutoff valves, and new drain lines.  We also modified the cold water line so that it feeds into a line that will connect to our eSpring water purifier.  Please be aware that all of the piping work took a lot longer than my typing about piping.  It was a hard-fought battle, and both Pipey and Moony were very instrumental in our accomplishing this task.  Pipe wrenches are wonderful things.  They have large teeth, they are red-orange, they can really bite into pipes and fittings, and they can be hammered on when the situation calls for it.  Plumbers tape is also wonderful.  As usual, pictures are provided.

The old piping setup

The old, corroded dishwasher shutoff valve

The new piping setup

The t-junction and shutoff valve for the eSpring

It works!!!!

Bonus

And now for a bonus picture - our new front yard hose caddie.

Ain't it a beaut?

Bonus #2

If anyone is interested in a high-quality, stainless steel, dual-bowl, 33"x22" sink; or a brand-new, still-in-the-box kitchen faucet (with soap dispenser); or another, probably new, chrome kitchen faucet please let us know.  We would like to see these items go to a good home (or homes).  Pictures can be provided upon request.

I can turn it on and off, just like a
    bIsh