The Hot Pan
(Skip the Story - Get right to the pictures)
Recently, Diane set a hot pan onto our beautiful (ahem) dusty rose colored countertop. Something she'd done successfully on many occasions, but not that day. This particular pan was a double boiler, which must have gotten quite hot - hot enough to scorch. I don't believe either of us realized just how hot a double boiler can be until that day.
Since we didn't particularly care for the color of the existing tops, we found it necessary to select a new color. We chose a beautiful off-white type color called 'almond leather', and called the local lumber yard to order the new tops. Once Diane settled on the new counter top, she (rightly so) decided the nasty old sink wouldn't look quite right, so she went out and picked out a new swanstone sink, and of course fixtures too.
After much searching, we settled on a certain faucet from Kohler in polished brass, which I was told by Kohler's web site, and their telephone operator was definitely not available. Diane gently proved us all wrong when it arrived at the local Lowe's store. I will probably never hear the end of it.
The local lumberyard manager came to measure for the new counter tops, but since they were custom made to begin with, he thought better of it, and asked the owner of the counter top manufacturing plant to measure himself. After some days, the owner arrived, got everything measured and the order placed.
We were both surprised at the amount of time it takes to get a sink, especially what should be a stock item. I think ours took almost four weeks, about two weeks longer than the counter top. While we were waiting for the sink, bits and pieces of the accessories came pouring in - the faucet, a special brass sprayer, the brass drain flange for the disposal, and the soap dispenser.
But no drain flange -- backordered for an extra month. Diane found a suitable replacement (again at Lowe's) and decided it was time to set the date for the counter installers, followed up immediately by the plumber. Boy, what a task, I thought. Coordinate two trades to come within one day of each other, otherwise, we do our dishes in the bathtub. I wanted nothing to do with it, and decided to watch Diane juggle them both. Not so, two phone calls and five minutes later, she had it all set up. Only one snag, in my opinion, she set it up for one of her work days and left me "in charge" (yeah right).
Since the lumberyard told us that we, not the counter top installers, were responsible to remove the old tops, I figured about the weekend before to get in and look to see how they were fastened down. I pulled a drawer out, expecting to see counter tops screwed to corner blocks, which is the standard and appropriate way to do such things. The builder thought otherwise. He had nailed the plywood to the counter tops with a nail gun, and then applied laminate 'in place'.
Numerous hours of hammering in all the tight spots allowed us to get the tops off with a minimum of damage. The old tops are destined to be work counters in my sister-in-laws flower shop, so I didn't want them destroyed. We still lost a bit here and there, even as careful as we were.
At that point - the night before the installers were due, I decided I needed to add all the corner blocks - about forty of them. Diane also pointed out that we should move the cable outlet for the kitchen TV to the other side of the sink. Some nine hours later, I had it done. Diane said something about going to a "Women For Panora's Future" meeting, and I didn't see her all that evening. Hmmm.
On the fateful day, the installers arrived, only about an hour late. They had gotten lost, but hadn't thought to call me on their cell phone. It was a bit of a rocky start, but they later went on to really shine in the face of some adversity. It turns out that the owner of the counter shop had done a pretty good job measuring - horizontally - that is. The counter where the sink was to go was quite nicely sized. Except for the fact that the backsplash was about three quarters of an inch too tall - it ran into five electrical outlets, two of which are mortised into the exterior log walls.
Needless to say, not a nice surprise. After several phone calls, a visit from the lumberyard folks (who were very supportive) we had a choice to make: Remake the counter top using a so called 'European' style, which has a shorter backsplash, or as Diane suggested - just move the outlets. Easy to say, not easy to do. After about two hours, our two intrepid installers and myself armed with a set of buck brothers chisels, a rubber mallet, and our foulest language, managed to hack - I mean mortise - the two outlets in the log wall up just high enough so the counter could be successfully installed.
Following that, the main counter installation went smoothly. So did our large island. Very nice. Except, now the island counter is about an inch wider than it was, which doesn't mean much until the reefer fritzes and we need a new one. It needed that inch to squeeze out of the kitchen. Oh well, it could be a long time yet before it goes out.
The simplest counter, a rectangular piece 28 inches wide had been marked and built (luckily by the owner of the counter shop and not us) to only 25 inches wide. We expect to have the installers back for an hour or so in the coming days.
The complete installation took seven hours, with nary a break by the installers. They did a nice job, and of course, you can decide for yourself a little further down the page. After they left, I spent almost two hours re-wiring the two boxes that we had moved up earlier in the day. Luckily, I had made some crude diagrams, or I would have never got it back together. The main difficulty was that there were so many connections in the outlets along with a GFI plug (which is larger than usual) which made it difficult to get all the stuff back safely into the box.
Next up, the plumbers. Arriving early the next morning, a local gentleman that I trust. The company he works for installed our new air conditioner last summer when ours went kaput in the middle of a heat wave, but that's another story. He made short work of installing the sink and the drain flange, but informed me that the polished brass drain flange wouldn't fit our funky disposal.
After a fruitless visit to the manufactures web site and a phone call, I determined that there wasn't a polished brass flange available for that particular model. That Thursday, I was in the big city and found that the proper disposal could be had for only $109.00 (plus tax), so I bought it, expecting to make a Diane a happy person.
On Friday, the plumber came back to install the brass flange, and the new disposal. After much fussing, we decided that the brass flange was improperly machined - the groove was too shallow - and would not support the weight of the disposal. A $40 dollar piece of crap - the flange, not the disposal. I should mention that this flange was not provided by the manufacturer of the disposal, but by the plumbing supply house where we ordered the sink. For the time being, we installed the new disposal with the stainless flange that came with it. A visit to this manufacturers web site revealed that they do sell a brass flange - just not directly. Another trip to Lowe's to special order it - I expect it to be available in about two more weeks time from now.
Once Diane got started, it was hard to get her to stop. New counter top, new sink. Hey, this won't match the linoleum, says Diane. And she was right. We probably trucked twenty different samples into the kitchen. Tile, wood-like flooring, and more linoleum. I pushed for a real hardwood floor. I found a source of red oak at $2.75 a board foot, and quarter sawn white oak at $4.20 a board foot. I figured I could take a few nights of wood school and machine it into T & G flooring, install it myself and save a bundle. Diane wouldn't have anything to do with it. She knows that it would still not be done...and she is probably right. So, Diane had the flooring installers for her choice of linoleum in a couple days ago, and it looks marvelous.
Oh, and on the way out the door, the installers thanked us for taking the time to remove the old counter tops and install all the corner blocks. Something they would have done for us, just charging for the labor. And so it goes.