Installation of our new bathroom sink

The long weekend was good to us, I think. We each had minor breakdowns to the tune of "why did we do this, the house will never get done oh god we're brooooooke...." and bounced back with full and even productive recoveries. There is a growing backlog of projects that I need to document, blog-style, but now that we're both back in class (which, I would argue, contributed to the breakdowns... things get so nuts During The Semester), I'm going to have to pace myself. Blah - having a career is so overrated.

Enough preface? I agree. Let's get down to brass (actually we prefer chrome...) tacks!

Two weeks ago we picked up our bargain ebay cast iron bathroom sink in NJ. Here it is after a good scrubbing, air-drying on our porch:


One week later, we hauled it upstairs and started messing with it. Ben was the primary messer and successfully attached the new faucet handles.

{Ben, messing:}
He ran into a bit of trouble with the faucet head itself, though. The center hole on our sink is apparently larger than modernly-manufactured sinks, so the base of the [modern] faucet had barely any surface to rest on, and was tipping all over like a drunk sailor. We didn't have any plumbers putty and silicone wasn't enough. So Ben rigged up a little brace for the underside that looks like this:
So that's a flexible but stiff rubber "washer" with a metal "bracket" held together by the metal washer that came with the faucet kit. Without the rubber "washer" the metal washer has nothing to brace itself against. (Ben has promised he'll write up a more detailed description of what's going on here. Someday.)

Here's another shot.
It's not perfect, and we have since bought (but not applied) some plumbers putty. But low and behold! It works!
Crap, I must have deleted the shot with water. Anyway, take my word for it, the shiny new faucet works, without spray from the opposite handle hitting the wall, or your eye, or your freshly laundered shirt (yeah right, like we have those anymore), or whatever.

And doesn't it look great!? Compare it to the Before shots.
And After:
Heaven!

Ben's still working on the drain and trap assembly. Like I said, he's the primary messer on this project, so once he's got that all sorted out, I'll report what he did. Another problem is that the cold water pressure is still low. We're still trying to figure that one out.

More bathroom updates to come! More chrome! More pretty! More better!