Operation Sink Etc.- Part Two

Now where were we...we are ready to install the sink!  Disclaimer- Scott did pretty much everything while I helped lift things, hold flashlights, and come up with brilliant ideas with my even more brilliant mind.

It was a great thing that we decided to replace all of the different parts as we probably saved about 45 min of our time not having to undo everything.  We were able to install part of the garbage disposal (which I did during a nap) and the faucet onto the new sink before we even put it in (which Scott and I did before we got started).  Saving some time and neck pain.  All he had to do at that point was unscrew the sink from the counter top, loosen the pipes, and cut the copper wire.  Once we got Nolan to bed for the night, we were ready to tackle this thing.  We started with the obvious- the cutting of the dreaded soldered copper.  It ended up being extremely easy.  He was able to cut the wire with a tube cutter majigger that the Lowe's guy recommended.  I was quite skeptical of it and even asked the guy- "This will cut the copper?"  He said, "Yep" and ran away so we couldn't find him again.  Not really, but I wouldn't have blamed him. We did all of this of course after shutting off the water and electrical to the disposal.  Unfortunately, we had to shut the water off to the whole house (because our house is awesome like that) so we basically had one shot to get this right since we cut the pipes.  I imagined us screwing up and going without water for days while we had to pay $1000 to cover any damages and for someone to have to redo it anyways.  We would have to find other people's sprinklers for water and showers for all of us and cry ourselves to sleep for about 3 nights.  Four nights would have seemed excessive, I think.

Pipes were cut successfully and the stop valves the Lowe's man recommended just snapped right on.  We were about to get other ones, but he recommended a certain type as it is much easier to install and it sure was.  They were just a few dollars more than the ones we were going to get, but worth it.  Now that we have these, we are able to shut the water off just to this supply if necessary.

See the new stop valves connected to the pipes and the part disconnected is floating above.

Once we had all of that done, we put on our handy gloves and were able to lift the sink out with everything attached out of the counter.   I did some good scrubbing around the edge of the hole to get excess caulk and other residue cleaned. We were ready to get the new sink in.

Once we had the faucet all hooked up to the sink, which was about as easy as pie, we were ready to to insert the sink with the faucet and half of the garbage disposal attached into the sink hole.  New use for that word?  I think so.  The first thing that Scott did while I held the flashlight was to screw in the sink with little screws all along the underside of the sink.  It was not an easy task as the area is quite cramped and small, but he did it and we were looking good.  Everything was going oddly well for us so far.  We can't hang a picture without something going wrong so to think everything was going well was quite unsettling. 

The next thing that Scott did was to install the basket strainer which required some plumbers putty and a bit of manly strength.  He had to insert plumbers putty just under the ring that goes about the sink so when it screws down, it squeezes out the excess and even more so when pressure is applied.

Then, he installed the rest of the disposal and we started aligning the PVC pipe in the necessary areas.  Because the sink was about 5 inches deeper than the previous one, I came up with the idea to switch two of the PVC's around which worked, but we were still about 2 inches off so Scott took one of the pipes outside and cut it so it would fit.  And it fit beautifully.  Once they did, he hammered like a beast tapped the disposal into the lock position.  He then hooked up the disposal to the dishwasher (or something) I kind of missed that part and its been a couple of weeks so my mind isn't as fresh.

The next steps were to screw in our water lines to the new stop valves, plug in the disposal, double check to make sure we got everything hooked back up, turn the water and electrical back on, and pray to God that everything was going to work and not leak everywhere.  Sure enough, we had WATER!  And no LEAKAGE!  And our sprayer WORKS!  OMG WE DID IT!  OR SCOTT DID IT PRETTY MUCH BUT WHATEVER IT IS SO EXCITING!  It took us just over 2 hours to do this.  No hiccups and everything ran smoothly.  Couldn't have asked it to go any better.  I caulked some silicone sealant along the side of the sink and we were done.

What was our labor total for doing this ourselves?  Just over $40.  The stop valves cost about half of that and we had to buy caulk, a caulking gun, the wire cutter, gloves, and plumber's putty.  And, we are able to use most of it again on future projects.  Everyone needs a caulking gun, right?  So we basically saved almost $800 by doing this ourselves.  Well, according to one company.  But still, a significant amount of savings.

Gloves, Caulk Gun, Wire cutter- yup that little thing is the wire cutter. That's it.

Let's look at some before and after pics. 

Before

After.  Before the sink basket strainer was in place.

For a little more perspective, here is the before and after with the Brita pitcher in place.  The faucet barely fit over it to fill before (and Nolan still drank bottles) and below that you now see there is plenty of room.  What.. a difference.  We knew the new sink would help break him from his bottle habit.

The sink has been in place for a couple of weeks now and we had one little mishap with the connection to the dishwasher.  The first time we ran it, it was pooling up with water.  I apparently missed a step when I was first hooking up the disposal but Scott was able to detect it quickly and thankfully was able to fix it just as easily.  We have run it about three times since and haven't had an issue again.  I love everything about it- the space and the sprayer.  How did I survive three years without a sprayer?!  I use it at least twice a day.

I love the satisfaction you get when you do something on your own.  Yeah, the sink would have been exciting if someone else would have done it, but it was even more exciting knowing we put it in ourselves and that we worked hard on it.  You never realize how much you are capable of doing until you actually just try doing it.  I don't know if we will have much DIY left with this house, but I'm hoping in the future we have a house someday where we are able to do more.  I just want to see what we can do.