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).
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.
