The house is on a septic system – not a completely foreign concept to Oak and I, having grown up with them, but we certainly had never had one in our adult lives.  One thing we did know – whatever you put down your sink, ends up in the tank.  Certainly with all the painting and other messy projects we’ve got going on, that can’t be a good idea.  So, Oak and his dad got the idea to put in a slop sink.

<Begin major undertaking>

It all started with choosing a sink from the Miller’s yard (yes, there were 2! haha).   Of course, we had to have the bigger one.  Yes, it was rusty but let’s say SOLID CAST IRON.  Holy moly.  Second nice part:  FREE!  It went on the back of Oak’s dad’s truck (along with many other acquired “treasures”) on our way back from Thanksgiving.   Here’s a picture of the BEFORE:

Overall, it was rusty and grungy from being outside for who knows how many years.  But oh, we had plans.  Somehow, I got the job of refinishing the sink.  Lucky me.  It was actually pretty fun and involved the use of some MAN TOOLS (grunt grunt Tim Allen style).  Here I am brushing off rusty pieces after my first rough attempt with a hand wire brush:

But oh… you don’t have to do it all by hand, oh no.  It would figure they make a wire attachment that goes on your drill! (LeRoy alumni:  Yes, that is my extremely fashionable, 11 year old marching band sweatshirt.  Unfortunately it got demoted to my home improvement wardrobe.  It’s very warm though!  I also wear my super old glasses should any random particles decide to fly at my eyes and damage my beauteous new ones.)

Here I am cranking up the corded old grandaddy drill (which occasionally sparks.. whatevs) with the wire brush attachment. It made short work of the uber rusty corners:

The sink itself was the most simple and shortest part of the entire process, but unfortunately we didn’t capture the other fun on camera.  Oak and Evan got to dig a drainage trench in the rain for the sink yum-yums to go into, while his dad did the neato fedito custom plumbing job.  A few days later, we ordered drainage stone and Oak and Hwa filled in the trench with the stone.  I believe the stupid stone was the most expensive part of the project, but we got some nicer pathways and widened driveway out of it too.  I missed out on this part – being at work among various other things,  but it definitely was a back-breaking activity that probably would have been too hardcore for wimpy ol’ Carrie anyway.

The sink got installed into place before I had a chance to put a second coat of paint on the outside, but you get the idea – here is the sink in its place in the garage:

Another coat of black paint on the outside, and it’s good to go!  Let me tell you how awesome this is.  No more painting for hours, getting to the kitchen sink to rinse your stuff out,  only to discover that the sink is full of dirty dishes! (How annoying is that!)  Also, the sink has HOT water so you get a toasty retreat from the cold garage as well!  Ding!

Posted by Carrie on Saturday, January 2, 2010
Categories: home improvement · 2 Comments »