Sea Gate Reno: That Sinking Feeling

The skies are blue, roller coasters are flying high, but my luck just plummeted… the plumbers have discovered that 100% of my sink fixtures do not work.

We expect that when trying to fit modern-day hardware into sinks that are 65 years old there will be a few bumps in the road. And, indeed, the formerly pink sink that we moved up to the third-floor blue wave bathroom had issues. But not with the fit. Rather, the box containing the faucet — which had been specially ordered to fit the sink exactly — was missing some key components. So, the plumber circled the six missing items on the installation instructions, and back I went to the plumbing supply store. All the parts just arrived, install next week.

The one “sure thing” was the master bathroom’s new vanity, which came with its own fixtures — a simple, all-inclusive purchase of a vanity, countertop with integrated sink, and faucet.

However, once the unit was installed, the plumbers informed me that the faucet was leaking from inside. GREAT. So, back I go to the store telling my new tale of woe. They ask for video proof (!!!!). Of course, the plumbers have left and they’ve shut off the water. We figure out how to turn it on, lift up the faucet and wait. And finally, a drip! On camera. The replacement has shipped and is arriving this week, but still no operational master-bath sink.

And that brings us to our next bathroom, the powder room:

I am thrilled with the stone floor, and beside myself with excitement to see this gorgeous giant clam shell, the floating counter made of reclaimed lumber from our attic, and the plumbing all finally hook up in the powder room:

We retrieve the shell from the third-floor clean room. We bring down the fixture box for the faucet. Oh, wait. Actually, no, we don’t bring down the fixture box. Because apparently, we need to win the trifecta of faucet problems, and no one can actually find the box. That was 10 days ago and it’s STILL missing. The boxes of faucets were all stored in one area, but things tend to disappear on a busy job site.

Lesson: Keep your special items hidden in a special room! This box contained a crucial element for the completion of the installation because the rough-in plumbing from it had already been installed. The remaining pieces in the box (held aloft in picture above) are the exact fit to the guts in the wall. SO, anticipating the worst, I went ahead and ordered a replacement fixture that first day of it going missing. It’s due on Monday. So, still, no working sink.

The only sink fixture that hasn’t been put to the test is the new faucet for the old kitchen sink. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but not too tightly.

Once the kitchen had been demolished, we saved the sink with the intention of having it reglazed and used somewhere in the house. It needed a smidge of TLC:

After months of debate, ultimately we decided to install this sink in the laundry room (which is almost exactly where it used to sit as a kitchen sink). We are thrilled with how this cast iron baby turned out with some nice reglazing:

And I recently discovered that, amazingly enough, the birthdate for this sink is stamped on the bottom: March 13, 1950.

Our washer and dryer arrived today, and plumbers return this week to connect it all. I hope all the parts are inside the box. I hope the parts won’t leak. I hope I can find the box.

Losing that box for the shell sink was literally the one day in 12 months of construction that I almost wanted to cry. So I told everyone I felt like crying. So then everyone helped me search, because there is NO CRYING allowed on a job site. That is all.