It all started with sticky sprayer

It was annoying, but livable. The sprayer in our kitchen sink faucet had started to stick. When you depressed the lever, it sometimes didn't UN-depress. As a result, the water wouldn't return to its home position coming out of our tap. Eventually, the sprayer would give up, and all would be well again.

I had found a simple solution to the problem: don't use the sprayer.

My husband, however, became obsessed with the sticky sprayer and launched an all-0ut war on our kitchen. Out of the blue he announced he was going to Lowe's to buy a new faucet. That was fine with me. In addition to the sprayer issue, the faucet also leaked a little and was sometimes hard to fully shut off (you had to have it just perfectly in the center or it would drip, drip, drip...).

Then he called from Lowe's and said, "I can also buy a sink while I'm here. I found a really basic one for $60." That, too, sounded pretty good to me since our sink was original to the home (circa 1980). It was one of those old, white cast iron/porcelain jobs—a real beauty in its heyday, I'm sure. In modern days, it stained in a moment, has lost its luster and leaked around the edges (and subsequently into our basement below the kitchen). So I said, "Why not?" We got the sink.

Home comes David and out goes the old sink and faucet. On a roll, David begins to install the new sink and discovers that Houston has a problem. Our new sink will not fit in the old hole. He'll have to cut our vintage goldenrod countertop—a problem since the counter is rotting in the back and cracked in several places around the opening (are you getting the sense that our kitchen needed/needs a LOT of work?). Hmm...

Back to Lowe's for more parts, this time with Noah and I in tow to choose new countertops. We also had hauled with us leftover materials to return from our deck project in May in hopes of offsetting the cost of the counters. Terrific idea! We get big money back, and we spend little in countertops and accessories.

So, here we are, a few days from Thanksgiving, and we have no sink and countertops in transition. Ugh. But my husband is awesome; he pulled it all together just in time.

This is where the old sink was, plus a removed section of countertop. I know you're checking out that rockin' tile backsplash too. It's a little remiscent of the 70s owl decor, yes? We're going to paint that (the tile, that is)... soon.


Here's David unhinging the biggest chunk of counterspace.


Two new sections installed! Foolishly, I realize I forgot to capture a pic of the new sink... I'll get on that.


A better look. Yep, it's busy with the old-school tile, but I really like the counters at least.


This week, David installed the last little section of counter here.


For those of you who've been to my house, you may now be wondering, isn't there something missing? Uh-huh. We removed an enormous section of counter. I know that seems odd—REMOVE counterspace?—but it was the right move.

Since we installed the half wall at the top of the spiral staircase just a mere three feet from the old counter arm (now missing), things were really tight. It was hard to walk through that space comfortably.

So we've decided to rip out that section and eventually buy an island/cabinet combo for the room's center.

But in ripping out the counter, we now have this terrific design on our floor:


Since we're waging war, we couldn't leave out the floor. We're going to fill in the hole and install hard wood laminate flooring that matches our living room and hallway (you can see a bit of that in one of the corners of the pictures).

The end result should be fabulous, but we've got a long road ahead to get there. But already you can see how much more open the floor plan is. I'm really digging it.


I have to give a HUGE shout out to my hubby for his work on this mammoth project. Aside from me holding a nail here and there, he's done it all. He rocks.