Butcher block counters – check!
Under mount sink – check!
Fancy new faucet – check!
Light update – check!
Holy moly, that was a process…3+ weeks to get the counters in from Lumber Liquidators, another couple of weeks before we got the sink cut out and a couple more for the Waterloxing process. Then there was the sink and faucet nightmare….
But can I tell you how much I LOVE my new faucet? I had been looking at faucets for weeks and hadn’t found anything I was getting excited about when the DRG found this beauty online:
We got this vintage looking bridge style faucet at VintageTub.com, and it was pretty reasonable – $140, which was much less than anything else I looking at. I wasn’t familiar with Vintage Tub, but they ended up being really terrific – we actually broke the little porcelain “hot” disc while we were cutting the hole for the sink and they replaced it free of charge. You can find the faucet HERE.
The new sink is about twice as deep as our old one, which is awesome for doing dishes, but ended up not being so awesome for the installation process. But it’s in, and I couldn’t be happier with it. I’ve been looking at farmhouse-style sinks for a while, but in the end I couldn’t justify the expense with everything else we ended up doing. We found this one Overstock.com, you can find it HERE.
I REALLY struggled with the question of how to join the counters in the corner. I know the “right” way to do it is to miter the corner and meet them up at a 45-degree angle, but I kept seeing photos of counters put together like that and I didn’t love the lines in the butcher block not lining up evenly at the seam – I think it would drive me nuts. I also noticed a ton of people just doing the 90-degree angle, so in the end that’s what we did.
I will say this – we made the decision to have my stepfather cut the sink and faucet holes, and I’m glad we did. I am normally pretty fearless about tackling DIY projects, but since I waited 3 years to get them, I was kind of freaking out about cutting the sink and faucet holes. The DRG is great at electrical and plumbing projects, but he’s not as confident about his woodworking skills. Lucky for us, my mom’s husband is a very talented master woodworker. They live an hour and a half from us, and we decided to make the drive out to his woodshop with the sink piece and the new sink and faucet. I’m not sure we could have tackled this project successfully with the tools that we own….I bow down to all the DIY-ers in blogland who have tackled this themselves.
I also discovered that I wasn’t being aggressive enough sanding between coats of Waterlox. I finished up the 3 base coats and 2 satin top coats and I was a little bummed out that the counters were rougher than I expected. My stepfather suggested going over it with steel wool and giving it one more satin topcoat, and that worked beautifully.
I’ve been eyeing my light fixture:
It’s not terrible, but it’s not great either….but I didn’t want the expense of buying a new one, so this was my solution:
I thought I would replace the old glass shades with cage pendant shades at $19 each. You can find them at Lowe’s HERE.
Unfortunately, they don’t fit into the fixture – the base is too big. So the cages are going back and the hunt for an update continues.
The under sink cabinet was pretty skanky from 20+ years of use:
So I added some $.89 peel & stick tile to cover up the grossness and make the surface a lot easier to clean:
I’m trying to find something cool to hang over the sink. I used to have a big clock in that spot, but I don’t have enough clearance for it with the bigger faucet mounted close to the wall.
Any ideas???
Contractor Kyle is busy getting the floor in and we’re expecting it to be finished in the next couple of days. Since we got the tile so cheaply, we decided to do the back entryway, so we’ll have a nice continuous line from the kitchen.
In the meantime, we patched the walls and replaced the beadboard wainscotting and trim. Once Kyle finishes up, it’s full speed ahead to putting everything back together.
I.
Can’t.
Wait.
