Kitchen Reno...I've lost track of the days...

Last night was a long one; we wanted to get as much done with the counter top as we could and really pushed to do it.

Our niece and nephew were staying over and as they are so young I was running around after 5 kids instead of helping Mike in the garage. After I got them all to bed around 9:30 I went to help get it done. As a result we finally crawled into bed 2:30 am.

I really need to get the tile on today in order to grout tomorrow, so I am hoping my brother (who was obviously partying a bit too hard as he never came home last night) stops in early to pick up his kids.

We were disappointed in a few things with the sink and arborite...the arborite had a wierd swirly pattern that was repeated too much. The only reason I don't really care too much about it is because my choices were limited in matching it to the floor. It's not something I personally would have picked if I was designing my own kitchen, and my lesson learned here is that if/when we ever build our own house I will personally go to the warehouse to pick out what I want from a bigger piece of arborite.

The sink was another odd story to our long night. Everything was measured perfectly where it would go, and so Mike cut out the hole and fit in the sink...it wouldn't go. It was tight on one side. So we took it out, and Mike cut some more, put the sink in and still we had to shave more off. I thought this was wierd, as the measuring was so accurate. It turned out that the template that came with the sink was way off...so far off that when Mike tightened the sink to the counter the bolts didn't even tighten to the underside of the sink...instead they are tightened to the countertop. The template didn't allow room for the bolts to clear the underside of the counter...it was out by about a half and inch. I was worried that the sink wouldn't be watertight, but it looks ok. Also, the drain is 'mounded' in such a way that the water doesn't drain fully out of the sink. The sink and counter is level in every sense of the word, so we ruled that out, and the pipes under the sink aren't too high, causing the underside of the sink to mound in the middle. If we push lightly on the bowl of the sink, it dips down, and the water that is pooled to the front of the sink starts to move toward the drain. Frustrating for us, as the sink is in and there's nothing I can think of to fix the problem. If any of you readers has a super handy hubby who can think of a fix, let me know!

And of course, when you start playing around with plumbing, you are essentially playing with fire, because usually you are going to find something you don't want to fix.

That happens to us everytime, being as we have always owned old houses, with corroded copper pipes that are so thin they spring pin-hole leaks if you look at them the wrong way.

Mike had to put a new shut off valve on the hot water line...one of the old lines that Mike was taking off was actually fused to the inside of the pipe, and he couldn't attach the new one until he removed it.

 Mike has to do a bit more finish work he tells me before I can tile. I was hoping to at least get it started since I was on a roll but I guess I'll wait, hopefully not for too long or I'll get the gumption to do it myself... I feel unproductive when I can't do the bigger stuff.

I start babysitting on Monday and I'm worried I won't feel like completing the finicky stuff as soon as I normally would. We need toe kicks, the oak trim needs varnish, and the cabinet hardware has to be attached. With all of that running around in my mind, and the kids driving me bonkers and my floor needing to be washed, I feel like I'm losing my mind!!

update: I signed on to Home Depot to leave feedback about the items we purchased for the reno, and I'm a firm believer in reading customer's reviews before buying something I'm making a long term investment on, like fridges, washing machines, faucets, etc. When Mike went to the store to get the sink (it was a surprise to me as I thought we were re-using our old one), it was a spur of the moment thing during the middle of his day and so no homework was done on the sink he was buying. When I left a review, the review above mine listed the same problems we had...yes the template was too small! I laughed so hard at this...it's in now so it's too late to take it back, but if we had known ahead of time we could have made the hole bigger! Although, with the sink not sloped to the drain, we wouldn't have got it in the first place..the water is pooled to the front of the sink and I have had to CLR the calcium buildup already as our water is so hard. It's too bad but we'll have to make do!

calcium buildup at the front of the bowl where the water layed all night long.  there are water stains already that I can't remove with CLR or anything else I tried.