Upgrade the Garage Sink

Back in January 2000, we put a big sink in the garage.  It was just temporary to see if it was useful.  There had been a small sink on the exterior wall.  We got a pre-fab cabinet and a big plastic sink, and put it in the corner next to the door to the kitchen.  It's worked out well -- seen lots of use.  But the wall above the sink keeps getting wet and then dry, and the paint is flaking.  Plus the cabinet (cheap press board) is starting to come apart.  So it seems time to make it permanent with quality materials.

 The first problem is the wall.  Since it gets wet, a tile wall would be best.  I noticed a tile wall at a local sandwich shop (Snarf's) that I liked, so I went looking for that and found it on the internet.   We planned to tile the entire back and side wall, so basically 8 feet high by 8 feet wide (3 feet on the side and 5 feet on the back).  We bought 70 sq feet of the tile, from FOC Tile (thru Paypal) for $1408.59.

And we also need a new sink.  That was more difficult.  The old sink was very large, and deep, but plastic.  There are few sinks of that size.  We finally found a 24 in. Farmhouse Single Bowl White Fireclay Workstation Kitchen Sink made by Deer Valley sold by Home Depot ($306.24).

We figured that rather than running the plumbing from the side wall, thru the cabinet to the sink, we would actually move it into the wall between the kitchen and the garage, since we would be rebuilding that wall anyway for the tile.  So now the entire project is exceeding my skill level -- move the plumbing, rebuild the wall, tile it, new cabinet, new sink, new counter top, and new sink faucet. 

But I had had a good experience with Joshua Dickson from Meadow View Construction when he came out and did the trim work for the 3rd return air and under the granite countertop in the kitchen, so I discussed it with him and we came to an agreement that he would do the work, for $4,133.

I removed as much of the stuff in way in the garage (the towel rod, the overhead shelf), and emptied the cabinet.  Then came demo -- remove the old sink and cabinet and open up the wall for the plumbing.

 Since we are tiling all the way to the ceiling, we will replace the sheetrock wall with Hardie board, so remove all that sheetrock.

 Next, Josh moved the hot and cold water lines, and the drain line to be in the wall, over where the new sink and faucet will be installed. And then install the hardie board as the new wall.

 I bought a roll of fiber glass insulation from Home Depot and put it in the exterior wall before it was covered with hardie board, just in case that helps later.

Once the walls were coverd with hardie board, and it had been properly sealed against water, Josh could start installing the tile.

 This took several days, putting up a couple feet of tile, and then waiting for it to dry before going on to the next section

 and the next

 until the entire wall was tiled.

 Once the tile was on the wall, it was grouted, and sealed.

 It looks much better all cleaned up!

 

 In the meantime, I drew up a design for the new cabinets, using my best high school drafting skills.

Jaimes Cabinets agreed to make them, for $1400, using solid plywood.  They did a great job and I picked them up, brought them home and put two coats of polyurethane on them.
 

Josh then installed the cabinets and installed the sink in place.

 The sink sticks out a bit (2 inches) from the cabinet (the "apron" part).

Next, we need a countertop.   We noticed a brochure at Costco that they do countertops, so I called them.  Costco put me in touch with Toor Stone Countertops.  We decided on a Quartz material, in Blanco Aspen (white) color. $919.03.  They sent a technician with a laser system to measure the sink, cabinet and walls to define what the countertop should look like.

After about two weeks, Toor showed up to install the countertop.  It took 4 guys.

Despite the laser measurements, it didn't quite fit the walls, shoving it over too far to the right for where the sink is.  As a result, they needed to trim off an edge two or three times to get it to fit. They used a silicone caulk on the wall/countertop joints, and also all along the top of the cabinets.  Then they applied more to the counter top/sink joint.  

 

Before they caulked everything down, I drilled a 2 inch diameter hole in the shelf under the sink, behind the sink, below where the hole for the faucet was drilled.  That allowed me to put the new faucet (Delta Classic Model 19810-SS-DST) in place.  Unfortunately all the tubing underneat the sink (the hot and cold water lines, plus the hose for the spray) did not reach down below the sink, so I had to enlarge the hole in the shelf, in order to get my hands up into the space behind the sink, and get things installed.  The faucet itself had to be bolted down to the counter top.  

Then the hot and cold water lines were attached to the cut-off valves that Josh installed.  Finally the spray hose had to be attached, with a weight on the hose, to allow gravity to pull the spray head back into position after it is used.  All this while lying on my back with my hands in the hole behind the sink working in the dark.

 But after hours of work, I got it all installed.

This is a workstation version of the sink, so it came with various extras -- a cutting board and mesh flooring,  I'm not sure how those will end up being used, but it gives it a touch of class.

 

 While getting things put together, I noticed that the grout didn't fully cover the space around the light switch.

That required getting some more grout (Egg-shell white), and carefully filling in the missing spots.

Refinishing the Back Deck

 The back deck was rebuilt in 2003, and then refinished in 2010 and 2017.  About 7 years apart.  Which means it is overdue.  The main problem is getting it cleared off to work on.  To ease that, we decided to do it in two pieces.  First we move all the stuff from the right half over to the left half.  Then we clean and refinish the right half.  After that is dry, we move everything over to the right half, and clean and refinish the left half.

Luckily, there are two long deck pieces running down the middle of the deck that meet in the middle.  So first we move everything off the right side.

 

Then we power wash the deck, to clear off all the old stuff.

As before, we use Cabot's Australian Timber Oil (Natural color).  We buy that from Lowe's at $60 a gallon, and need 3 gallons. 

We use a wide paint brush to apply the finish.  It makes the deck look quite a bit darker.

 The back half of the deck, up against the house, under the roof, has aged quite a bit different from the exposed front.

 After a couple of days, we move all the stuff onto this refinished half and  we repeat this process on the other half of the deck.

 It takes 4 hours to do the other half of the deck.  The part near the house

 and the part away from the house.

 In addition the stairs needed to be refinished.

 and we gave special attention to the handrails.  We sanded them down with the belt sander, and put a coat of the Timber Oil on it, then waited for it to dry and put another coat on top of that.  Previously, leaning on the handrail risked splinters. The hope is that the sanding, and two coats, will minimize that.  With a little light hand sanding after everything is dry, that seems to have worked.

 

 

Refreshing the Back Sidewalk

The back sidewalk is constructed of Oklahoma Thin flagstones. While they are cemented in place, they still need to be grouted between the stones.  We did this when it was built in 2006, extended in 2014 and when it was refreshed in 2021, and it looks to be needing it again.

We begin by pressure washing the sidewalk, to clean out anything between the stones.

 

Then we applied the same Polymeric sand.  Tan. Bought from Home Depot. Techniseal EZsand.  This is just poured on, and then swept into place.

 and then wet down with the "Mist" setting on the hose.

 

Once it was all dry (several sunny days), we bought some waterproofing sealer from Home Depot (SealKrete Original)

 and used to hand-held pump sprayer to spray this on all the seams, in an attempt to seal them against the elements, leading to a longer time until this has to be done yet again.

We also tried a different approach on the section of the sidewalk by the garage, and around behind the raised garden.  On this section, instead of using the Polymeric sand, we just poured mortar mix.  We used the broom to again sweep it into all the cracks between the stones, and then the mist setting on the house to spray it down.  The hope here is that the mortar mix, being harder and more rigid, will fill and seal the space between the stones, and stay there.  So we will not need to replace it again.  Time will tell.

 

 

Trim under Granite Countertop in the Kitchen

 Back when the granite countertops were installed in the kitchen in 2011, we removed the previous Formica counter tops and with them the trim at the intersection of the countertops and the counters.  We never bothered to replace that trim

 After all it's just trim -- has no functional use.  But you can see that the top of the counters under where the trim had been is not stained, and there are some gaps between the granite and the counters.  

But we needed a trim carpenter to do the oak trim around the 3rd return air grille, and as long as he was here, we tasked him with doing the trim in the kitchen too.  $700.

We were able to find the same sort of concave trim at Lowe's, in red oak, in 8 foot pieces. We got eight 8 foot pieces for $130.39.

We added this along the top of the counters where they met the granite countertops.

 And also removed the old trim and replaced it with this new trim in the three vertical places where the counters mean the painted sheetrock.

 We then stained the new trim with Varathane Penetrating Wood Stain in Colonial Maple and put a coat of polyurethane finish over that.

Special attention needed to be paid to the opening over the dishwasher, since there is no cabinet to attach it to there.

 

But that is why it is sometimes best to hire  a professional.

 

Adding a Third Return Air Vent

 Every time we get someone out here to look at our electrical usage or our A/C system, they all remark that we don't have enough return air for our system.  We have, now, two return air vents, each 12x36. 

 When the house was built, it only had the one 12x36 vent in the hallway.  I added the second one, in the pass-thru room,  when we got a new A/C system at some point.  I had to move the electrical outlet to the side, to make room for it.

But the last two times someone looked at it, they both said it needed more return air.  Looking under the unit at the space that is there, there is only one more place to add another return air vent -- in the 3rd wall under the unit, in the pass-thru room.

 This wall is shorter than the other two and we can only fit a 12x24 or 12x30 vent into it.  After checking, the 12x24 size is much more common, so it will be easier and cheaper to get a filter to put in it, if we want to, so we decided to go with a 12x24 vent at the bottom of the wall in the pass-thru.

We started by making a cardboard cut-out the size that we wanted and pinned it in place, to get a sense of what it would look like.

 Then we cut a hole to match that into the wall.

 There are two walls to cut thru, the outside one in the pass-thru room, and the inside one that goes under the A/C system.  There was the possibility that there might be an electrical cable in the wall, but cutting carefully the wall in the pass-thru room showed there was no cable, just some insulation, a 2x4 stud and the framing for the raised floor for the A/C closet.

 Our goal is to mimic the style of the other two vents, so we remove the baseboard and the bottom part of the 2x4 stud, and cut thru the inner wall to the return air chamber.

 At this point, we need a frame of 1x3 oak around the vent to match the other vents.  We know from putting the second vent in, that I don't have the skills to do a good job of that, so I hired a trim carpenter to do that -- Josh Dickson from Meadowview Construction to do the frame and baseboard.  He also installed a 2x4 header and support on the left side of the opening I had made for the vent.

 and then to install the trim around the hole.

 and the baseboard on the left and right.

 At this point, I noticed that the vent has a 3/4 inch lip of metal all the way around, to support the air filter, so the opening is not actually 12x24, but only 10.5 x 22.5.  The wall that we go thru is a 2x4 stud plus 5/8 or 3/4 sheetrock on both sides, plus the baseboard,  or in our case the 1x3 oak trim, so it is some 6 inches deep.  The return air grille sits on the outside of the 1x3 trim and is only 1 inch deep.  That leaves about 5 inches of space before we get to the return air cavity itself.  Instead of leaving this rough, exposed edges, I decided to trim it off with a 1x6 piece of wood, all around the opening, fitting right up to the return air grille.  This was sanded and given two coats of polyurethane.

Installing the return air grille (purchased from Amazon, $49.88 before we started any work) finishes this task.