It took me several hours of sweating and swearing to remove my kitchen sink prior to the countertop installation, but I did it. After several more hours of trying to remove the old caulking from the sink, Leslie, bless her heart, suggested that I should just buy a new sink and new faucet too, while I'm at it. So off I went to Lowe's and did just that. Found a knowledgeable guy (IMHO, Lowe's has a lot more of these than Home Depot) who set me up with everything I needed. Well, almost everything....
On the 2nd trip to Lowe's, I got the part that was missing from the faucet, extra connections to connect the 3/8" faucet to my 1/2" water supply (thanks to Dave for advising me to check on that!), and waste connections with threads that actually matched the sink traps'.
This morning I got up all set to install the sink. But first, I'll slide my stove back into place, a 60-second job, right? 2 hours of getting it in place and levelled, and finally it's there.
Now I'm ready for the sink. Off to the hardware store (trip#3) to get caulk, then back home to apply it and put the sink in place. Now under the sink to apply the clips that torque it down...oh, now that I have the granite on top of my old countertops, the screws that came with the sink aren't long enough. Back to the hardware store (trip#4) and, with only an hour or so of further fuss, the sink is in!
Now for the faucet. I've already done some pre-assembly of the faucet, so all that remains is to drop it into place and hook up the water lines. The hell you say. This would've been much easier, I think, if I had had someone to hold the faucet on top of the sink while I tried to tighten it down underneath. But, too impatient to wait for help, I struggled long enough to finally get it in.
Now to connect the drains. Hacksaw off a bit here, a bit more there, finally everything more or less fits. Except that I have a minor drip from the p-trap. This, I can live with for now.
At last it's time to connect the water! Drip, drip, tighten, tighten, drip, drip, tighten, tighten. At last no drip.
In addition to new countertops, I now have a beautiful goose-neck faucet with detachable sprayer head, shiny new sink with built-in soap dispenser.
Let's see, I started this project at 9 this morning, it's now 6pm. Maybe a plumber could've done it faster, but I did it! I did it!
Next step: Move all the furniture out of kitchen and office in preparation for new floor installation next Tuesday. Stay tuned....
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