soapbox

FYI: I’ve added a few more albums to my iTunes listing; if people are interested in backing up my song collection then good for them. I’m working on a few playlist and related posts, so be warned.

I was talking to Michael about this earlier… but there’s definitely a special level of hell for people who strip the heads on screws. In the furniture that I build, I always use brass screws and you won’t find any of them stripped. How then could a counter-installer manage to strip the hardened steel screws he used?

Incompetence. That’s the answer.

Here’s the full story. Kirsten and I are getting new countertops at the house basically to improve the resale value. It doesn’t hurt that we’re going to have a year or so to enjoy them too. We’re going with Corian, mainly because you can get a molded-in sink. The installers are coming out on Friday to make the final template that they’re going to use to fabricate the actual countertops.

But before they can make the template, the existing countertop needs to be removed so they can get good measurements. They’ll do it for a fee…

and that means that Kirsten and I got to do it on our own. I figured it would be a 45-minute project…

First surprise: all of the stripped screw heads. I got out the hacksaw and, after severely contorting myself, cut 4 or 5 screws to free the counter.

The first section came off fine. No problems other than the screws.

Second surprise: the in-sink-erator is direct wired to the house so rather than just unplugging it, I had to shut off power and unwire it. No problem.

Unhook the plumbing.

Third surprise: the in-sink-erator won’t come off of the sink. I can see how it’s held on and how it’s supposed to be released, however the ring won’t turn. Even if I hit it with a 4 lb. hammer.

We pick up the counter, sink, and in-sink-erator in one piece (heavy).

Fourth surprise: The sink was too big for the base cabinet so the installers had just fucked stuff up. They cut one wall off of the cabinet and tried to use the neighboring cabinet for support. The other side faced the dishwasher so they just cut down the wall and flexed it out. Basically there’s no support for anything.

I go get a sheet of plywood, cut it to the correct size and replace the damaged cabinet sides. Then I replace all the corner braces that were ripped out to fit the sink in.

Fifth surprise: with the cabinet fixed, there’s no room for the sink anymore. Hopefully the counters won’t take too long.

Anyway, job one is done. However, there are nasty vinyl backsplashes everywhere. Since the counters are off, we might as well rip that down too.

Thanks to amazingly amounts of construction adhesive, that takes 2 hours and leaves holes in the walls.

Patch the holes.

Get PVA primer (instead of regular primer) to cover the now-bare sections of wall.

Paint.

11 pm. go to sleep.

Here are some pictures. The sad thing is that they don’t look that different.

before

after