Just when you thought it *should* be easy.....

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We are doing some renovations to our 20+ year old kitchen.  The peach formica on the counter tops is FINALLY going to go away.  Only problem is that we have (thus far) run into 2 expensive glitches.

First glitch, I have to get a finish carpenter in to give us an estimate as to how much it is going to cost to take a cabinet out and reinstall it.  We have an appliance garage that needs to be moved.  The cabinet it is under is a solid piece of wood, so the whole damn thing needs to be taken out.  As it's in a corner, one of 2 cabinets needs to be removed to get to it.

The second glitch we ran into this weekend.  We need a new sink, the current one is a ceramic cast iron one that is badly stained and chipped.  If I had my druthers, I want it replaced with the exact same sink.  It is a double sink that has a small, shallow left basin and a very large, very deep right one.  The garbage disposal is attached to the left basin.  As it turns out, we need that shallow basin because the switch for the garbage disposal would block a deeper basin.  Only problem is that the damn sink has been discontinued.  There is one available at Amazon but they want an arm, a leg and a minor organ for price, and that's it.  Today, I get to call around to Lowe's and Home Depot to find out if there is any chance any of the stores would have it in inventory.

This is so not fun.  We are either going to have to pay a lot of $$ for a sink that will fit or hire an electrician move the switch.  I wonder which is the cheaper option?  Oh, and the switch is built into solid wood maple.  It is going to look ugly if we have to move it.

[zibazinski]

That's why I'm stuck with an ugly SS sink. It'd cost a fortune to replace it. Because of all the other stuff involved in it.

[The Captain]

Jul 7, 2014 12:55:40 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

We are doing some renovations to our 20+ year old kitchen.  The peach formica on the counter tops is FINALLY going to go away.  Only problem is that we have (thus far) run into 2 expensive glitches.

First glitch, I have to get a finish carpenter in to give us an estimate as to how much it is going to cost to take a cabinet out and reinstall it.  We have an appliance garage that needs to be moved.  The cabinet it is under is a solid piece of wood, so the whole damn thing needs to be taken out.  As it's in a corner, one of 2 cabinets needs to be removed to get to it.

The second glitch we ran into this weekend.  We need a new sink, the current one is a ceramic cast iron one that is badly stained and chipped.  If I had my druthers, I want it replaced with the exact same sink.  It is a double sink that has a small, shallow left basin and a very large, very deep right one.  The garbage disposal is attached to the left basin.  As it turns out, we need that shallow basin because the switch for the garbage disposal would block a deeper basin.  Only problem is that the damn sink has been discontinued.  There is one available at Amazon but they want an arm, a leg and a minor organ for price, and that's it.  Today, I get to call around to Lowe's and Home Depot to find out if there is any chance any of the stores would have it in inventory.

This is so not fun.  We are either going to have to pay a lot of $$ for a sink that will fit or hire an electrician move the switch.  I wonder which is the cheaper option?  Oh, and the switch is built into solid wood maple.  It is going to look ugly if we have to move it.

I would pay the money for the sink, it's a known amount.

When we had to have electrical done the contractor punched holes in the wrong side of the wall so we ended up needing to patch and repaint a wall we were not planning on touching.  His claim was that he wouldn't be able to run the new line from the side of the wall we wanted him to use.

Oh, and the new switch he put in had the hole cut too large and the wall plate doesn't cover all of it.  So now we have to patch the drywall and paint around the switch as well.

Just a big pain in the ass (sorry!). 


ETA - do you have home stuff recycle stores by you?  In my area we have Habitate for Humanity Restores (recycle usable stuff from home remodels).

[NancysSummerSip]

ETA - do you have home stuff recycle stores by you? In my area we have Habitate for Humanity Restores (recycle usable stuff from home remodels).

We have that, too. They get good stuff from a lot of mansion tear-downs.

Check restaurant/hotel supply places, too.

[Regis]

Do you have architectural salvage places in your area?  They may have the exact same model as your previous sink.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I'd have no problem moving the switch, but the sink is in an island and the outside of the island is this beautiful maple cabinetry.  So cutting another hole in the wood is not an option.  I do question if we could move the inside guts of the switch down a bit and run wires up to it though.  But we'd have to have an electrician in (along with the finish carpenter) to do the work.

I want to just buy the sink too.  It's roughly 2x what it cost while in stock.  

While we were looking at sinks yesterday, we took a look at dishwashers and ranges.  The dishwasher TD wants is about $400 less than what he expected to pay.  The range is going to be an interesting proposition though.  I want gas, the house has gas run to it but we have no idea if there is a gas line run to the range until we pull the current stove out.  Current stove is electric.  If there is no gas line run, we will likely go with an induction cooktop.  Only problem with that is that the only induction ranges are stainless steel and we do NOT want SS appliances.  Also, there will be some pots I can't use any more on an induction cooktop.

My best guess is that those 2 appliances and sink are going to add about $300 to the tab and run the kitchen 'reno' to about $10,000 plus whatever we need to pay the finish carpenter.

[Sam_2.0]

Can you get your current sink refinished instead? I know they will refinish the old tubs, seems like a sink would be a similar process.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 7, 2014 13:31:20 GMT -5 Sam_2.0 said:

Can you get your current sink refinished instead? I know they will refinish the old tubs, seems like a sink would be a similar process.

Yeah, we looked into this.  But the designer in the floor center we are working with suggested that this really isn't a good option for a kitchen sink.  She told us that if it was a bathroom sink or one that does not get a lot of use, that it's a decent option.  But refinished sinks do not have anywhere near the same lifespan as the original one.

[Deleted]

Our old house had refinished bathrrom sinks and tub. It was nice until it started to peel off after less than a year...