Today started with planning. Specifically, finding a tap for the kitchen sink. We wanted one with a spout that maximised the height above the sink, that was operated by a lever that is above the spout.
The lever position is important. If you don't turn it on from above the spout, then you're having to reach under the spout to turn it on. Which, if you're half asleep, ends up giving you a soggy arm.
Tracy wanted a detachable nozzle on the spout - but these seemed highly prone to leaks. At least, they were prone to leaks in the price range we were looking at. I'm sure if I spent £100 on a tap it may be better quality.
There's also only cold water into the kitchen but I couldn't find a suitable tap that did only cold water. So we had to choose a mixer tap and then find a way to block off the hot pipe.
When I got home I did a ridiculously overly-enthusiastic unboxing of my "haul" for the offspring. Just like the YouTube videos they watch. Firstborn wasn't impressed but secondborn loved it, she even joined in presenting the items!
I digress, sorry. Back to all the problems challenges...
First thing was that the tap was 2mm too wide for the hole in the sink. So that was another trip to the DIY shop to get a new tool. One that could file down stainless steel using the power of a drill. Et voila -
Must have taken around an hour to enlarge the hole. It took forever. Really should have worn ear protection too. My ears were ringing for the rest of the day and every time I moved there was a wooshing noise. Very strange.
Getting back to the DIY, the worktop now needed a hole. A hole perfectly in line with the sink hole. You can see where this is going already, can't you!
Yep, hole was a millimetre out but it was also too small. I'd used the width of the bottom of the tap as the necessary hole diameter but completely failed to realise that there were attachments on the underside of the sink to allow for. So now we needed to make the hole a whole 20mm wider.
Dad had an ingenious idea to make accurately and neatly cutting the hole easier. He repurposed the ringpull off a (empty) tin of soup to create a height difference between two drill bits.
The smaller bit (used for the original hole) acting as the pilot. And thus this creation was born:
This worked really well. Then it was just a matter of adjusting the hole slightly to get the alignment perfect. We used our new rotary file - it made much quicker work of the wood than it did the steel (to the surprise of nobody).
Then there was some faffing because the mounting bracket of the tap had some plastic bits that hit the worktop, so the hole needed to be distorted in such a way that the sink sat flush on the worktop. With the aid of a ring of play-doh to identify where the bracket was contacting the worktop, the nice round hole became this monstrosity:
But it works, that's the main thing.
Next up, I fitted the blanking plug to the other tap hole on the sink. Completely failing to notice that this would also require a hole in the worktop. Boom:
That one was easier.
I then went to fit everything together and fit it all in place. And it was at this point that I realised that a rubber washer from the tap assembly had gone missing. We spent a good 40 minutes looking for it. At 20:30 the search was called off; too exhausted and hungry to even bother tidying up.
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