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.

 

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.