A new sink, I guess.

I came downstairs this past Saturday with the kids to find our sink had literally fallen away from the countertop. To clarify, it's an undermount sink. Upon closer inspection, after caulking and affixing the sink to the underside of the countertop, the previous owners must have looked at the box of clips that would have come with their sink and thought, "Meh, too much hassle." Then promptly chucked them.

Well, their installation method sucked.

On the bright side, K and I saw the opportunity to get ourselves a sink we actually like. Namely, a single basin option. Given the fact the granite is cut to a given size, we were a little limited in our options. However, those same previous owners and their questionable installation ideas had decent taste. Ish. The sink that decided to come unglued was a Kräus so we looked at their single basin options. There were two: one with the drain centered and one with it off-centered. The off-centered one was a "workstation," which essentially meant it came with a cutting board and drying rack contraption.

Given where the under-cabinet vent stack was placed (umm, dead center) we were forced with the off-centered-drain-plus-workstation option. No biggie. Maybe we'd come to appreciate being able to chop veggies over the sink vs. taking up precious counter space. Time will tell. It does look really nice, I'm not gonna lie.

Backing up, I needed to install our new sink. Thankfully, I've done lots of plumbing and the job was a piece of cake. It started with grabbing the van's jack to hold up the sink while I disassembled all the existing plumbing.

After that was accomplished and the sink was lifted out of there came the hardest part: scraping off the adhesive those folks thought would hold an undermount sink indefinitely. It was like cement. It also looked ghetto and was an eyesore for the past few years, bugging me and K. One of the many downsides of being a perfectionist (thanks Mom!) is being bothered by details that clearly do not give pause to non-perfectionist people. Case in point: a messy edge between the sink and the countertop.

So I spent time with my multitool and some sandpaper cleaning off the underside of the granite. I wanted a clean edge.

From that point on, the install was a breeze. I applied the proper amount of clear silicone to the new sink's flange, then Scott and I heaved it up and squished it against the underside of the countertop. A perfectly clean edge all along the sink. Using the jack as a temporary brace, I took the liberty of also tossing aside the supplied undercounter brackets for ones I had picked up off Amazon that could likely hold a baby elephant who decided to take a bath in our sink.

For the drain, I of course had to completely redo it. So after a trip to Home Depot and good ol' Stan's Merry Mart I had what I needed. Oh, here's where I get to point out those same previous owner's also thought it a good idea to glue the sewer vent onto the top of the drain stack. Apparently they didn't realize that's a) completely unnecessary and b) needs to have its filter changed from time to time (which is impossible with it cemented to the ABS pipe). Brilliant.

Sheesh, there's a reason I do all this stuff myself.

After hacking off the drain just below the existing sanitary tee, I dryfit all the various pieces needed to connect the disposal and espresso bar drain in order to figure out how long to cut some of them. I also reused the disposal flange after cleaning it up a bit.

Once all the PVC and ABS was measured and cut, I put it all together.

Boom. After running water and confirming nothing leaked, we were good to go. The last thing to do was re-affix the fake drawer fronts that hid the sink. Oh, here was another job those owners hacked and I took the chance to make right.

They had only used a single screw on each side so the whole contraption sort of wiggled. I added a second screw. Now it's bomber. Is it worth mentioning that I had also tightened the faucet a couple years ago because, well, it was also not installed properly? I guess I just did.

Enough griping about those two. Now our sink-plus-faucet combo is good to go. I should mention one last thing: oddly, or not because the whole sink was questionably installed, the garbage disposal is now significantly quieter. So much so I can't actually tell it's operating when the water is running. It's essentially silent. Which I know these disposals should be because I chose one and installed it in our old house. 

Basically, just icing on the cake to an installation that feels and looks amazing.

We'll see how much we use the cutting board. Almost immediately, K and I both agreed we loved the single basin over the double-basin. Also, with the drain on the right it's next to the dishwasher (the old sink had the disposal on the left). Efficiency. 

The important thing we reminded ourselves is now we have one more thing that makes this home ours. All because of those previous owners…