We did the next bit of the kitehen this week, and it was an interesting learning exercise. Once again I am glad that we decided to do a trial!
Some months ago, I bought a preloved length of granite with a cut out which was almost perfect for the undermount sink I had chosen. We had agreed that we'd put this worktop in as a temporary exercise so we could test out granite, and the sink, and everything, before committing to new worktops.
I bought the sink and the new water softener a few weeks ago, and we've been waiting for my plumber cousin to have time to come and fit it all for us.
That all happened at short notice last week.
All the existing sink plumbing, which had mushroomed over the years, was replaced. New water softener installed in a cupboard away from the sink (a FB Marketplace bargain cupboard, brand new, gorgeous, has a sliding shelf). The existing dishwasher and water filter was plumbed in, and the new sink unit was installed an the sink plumbed in. It's a drawer unit, so it provided a bit of a challenge.
The sink is enormous, the opening is about 73cm or so, and is divided 1/3 -2/3rds. We had a brief discussion abut which way round it should go, and we went with DH's preferred option which was small sink to the left. His logic was sound , the draining board is on the right . I didn't mind, if it turns out to be "wrong" then we can fix it when we do the worktops properly. We also had to make snap decisions on where to put the tap and the spray, and again I wasn't too fussed. We re-used our existing taps, which are 25? years old now.
By Thursday night DH confirmed that he was happy that a second dishwasher would fit and I ordered a mid range Miele (having had a less than great experience with not one but two top of the range Mieles before). DH isn't really keen on the idea of a second dishwasher, but he could see that I was determined. I got a Miele as he said he preferred the baskets in our old Mieles (vs the Bosch we have now). I thought it might make him a bit happier about it all.
It arrived today, fab service from Costco, and is now installed.
The refit of the other bits took a couple of days, and we had to wait 24 hours for the sealant to dry before using it. sealant on the sink was put on yesterday, so we've not been able to use the sink until today, and it's interesting.
We've had it in and useable for a few days now, and my initial thoughts are:
(a) Having an undermount sink is lovely
(b) I might end up putting the sink in the utility room or the downstairs bathroom (when we build it) (the sink is big enough to bath a dog);
(c) the tap position isn't ideal, it's too far back (it could only come forward a small amount (or the sink should go back a bit, I guess), but there isn't much leeway. I don't really want to go for a different tap;
(d) I should have thought more about where the spray hole was going;
(e) I might have been hasty in getting rid of the pop up plugs, despite the problems they cause ~
(f) Any idea I had of being able to have one of those clever basket-round-sink things for the top drawer has gone right out of the window, and I need to see if my desire for that outweighs my desire for a big sink
(g) DH. lovely man that he is, is looking at various Heath Robinson ideas to see if he can come up with something rather than just giving in and fixing the top drawer fascia on so it is immovable.
(h) my dislike of draining grooves in a worktop is NOT going to go away;
(i) DH was right when he said the bottom of the sink was a long way down
(j) the second dishwasher was a good idea
(k) we need a system so we know which dishwasher we should be loading
(l) I need to work out what to do with the handtowel. I've got some ideas, but I need a bit of time on my own to try it out
(n) I had no idea until today how much easier it is to have the dishwasher controls on the inside top of the dishwasher door. This had seemed like a stoopid idea when we first got the Bosch dishwasher; I found myself wishing for it when I was grovelling on the floor trying to see the darkened touch screen isons on the new one. I may have sworn a bit
(ol) thank goodness we did this as a test-install before committing to getting worktops done. We have that opportunity to fix anything.
We're still considering options (something else came up which required attentiom). We'll see what happens.,
