Half Bath Renovation: The Sink Gods Hate Me

Do you ever start a project with a great feeling that this will go pretty smooth? This was just that project, but then everything began to go horribly wrong.

Figuring that I should avoid the hose issue that I had with the toilet, I went back to the hardware store and picked up two faucet hoses. With everything else ready to go, I went about disconnecting the sink from the wall. Basically it is being held up by a fairly thick piece of metal with a bent curve screwed into the wall into what I would assume to be wood. It also seems to be in place by shifting some of its weight onto the pipes it also rests upon, which with metal pipes I’m sure isn’t that big of an issue and certainly not something you’d want to try using plastic. Now, from turning off the water line and opening the faucets I knew that the cold water had a minor drip, about one every three seconds, which for our house is pretty good for a shut-off valve. But it wasn’t until I disconnected the hoses that I realized the extent of this drip, which I anticipated with a towel and pitcher, which, let’s just say, wasn’t enough. I decided to connect the new hoses quickly, hoping it would alleviate some of the water seepage, but the pitcher was quickly overwhelmed and I had to grab my 12 quart stock pot to perform its duty of keeping water from getting all over our beautiful slate floors.

Using our handy stud finder, I found that the entire area was solid behind the wall. Excellent, right? So I used the drill to pre-drill holes into place and figured that if the stud finder was wrong the sink also came with drywall clamping screws as well, which meant that either way I’d by fine. The first hole I drilled started out fine, but quickly went right through the drywall, which I figured the stud must be right next to it, and so I grabbed the 5/8 inch drill bit and began boring out a larger hole… until it hit wood. What the heck? I removed the drill bit to discover that right where I needed the hole to be was smack in the middle of two not so butted up 2x4s. I put the screw between them in the gap and found that it was tight enough to hold and figured that’d be good enough, the pedestal will carry most of the weight anyway. The stock pot was full, so I dumped it in the kitchen sink as the utility sink next to the bathroom was full of stuff. Then I focused my attention on the other hole with the original smaller drill bit and I don’t know what it is with this old house but they must have dipped the wood in adamantium because it doesn’t like to be screwed. After getting the hole the right size, which by the way took about ten minutes with a very powerful drill, and having already dumped the pot yet another time, it was time to dump it again, after all, it filled up every five minutes.

With this issue somewhat taken care of, I quickly set my attention to getting the rest of the sink attached to the faucet and drain. I had put the faucet on already, and did all the prep of plumber’s taping the areas that needed to be and attached it to the existing drain, moved the pedestal roughly into place and put the sink on top and saw that there was a rather large gap between the drain and the hole in the sink where it should have been inserted to. No problem! We have a hole horde of extra plumbing pipes in the garage from other various fixes with the sinks in the kitchen and main bathroom. Checking over the stash, I grabbed two pipes that might work, put them into place, and then put them back into the bin they were stored in, grabbing another piece that was bendy since I had to not only make it a half an inch further out than it was, but also needed the thinner pipe, and when it was in place and the sink was sat upon it the fit was perfect. Finally, something’s gone right!

Working fast, I connected the leaking hoses to the sink which I apparently bought two that were too short and had to go into the garage and disconnect the ones on the old sink and use those, as well as puttied the drain opener and wrenched it in tightly and began bolting it into the wall, starting with the one that would go between the studs. It took longer than anticipated, but was in place and sturdy, so I started the other one. This took much longer than anticipated, especially given I pre-drilled holes, and when it was about halfway into the wall, the screw snapped in half, causing me to yell, with the window and doors open mind you, GDMFCSSOAB!!! I decided the first initials of each cuss word that slew from my vocal orifice will suffice for this part, as I’m certain our 90+ year old next door neighbor was taken aback by my outburst, as was our dog, Lucy, who ran up to the half bath to investigate. At this point, I threw everything down and said I was finished for the day. Okay, so I grabbed my camera, took a picture of the offending snapped off bolt and where the rest it was firmly attached to the wall, then said I was done. So, sink is in, but not very well, and the drain leaks a little. Grrr…