Success!

Yesterday did prove to be an interesting day.  There were times when we thought the sink project was going to get the better of us, but we hung in there and finally had success!  Here is how the story unfolded.....

Here is where we started with the old sink and faucet. 

Here is poor Billy....flat on his back removing the screws that hold the counter top onto the base.  He has already shut off the water and disconnected the water lines and drain pipes.

Our first problem, was locating all the screws holding the counter top to the base.  We thought we had removed all the screws, but it would not budge.  Finally, after removing the interior panels, we discovered more screws on either side which had been hidden from our view.  After removing all the screws the counter top easily lifted off the base and now Bill could easily remove the sink bowl and faucet.

We have solid surface counter tops.  They are thinner than residential solid surface so they use a plywood "filler" to add stability.  That is the old drain pipe sticking out.

What a nasty mess that is.....we obviously had been having some leakage.

We have no idea why they felt it necessary to cut a square outta of the plywood....all that accomplished was making it next to impossible to use a wrench to tighten down the sink.   Which is probably why we were having leaks.

Bill's solution was to fill the square and then drill the appropriate size hole to pass the drain pipe through.  Now he could tighten things down properly!

Here we have the finished installation.......pretty nifty if we do say so ourselves.  One last improvement...we were able to actually center the counter top on the base.  The old install had left the counter top slightly off center in order to get the taller faucet to clear the door swing of the medicine cabinet.  Our new faucet has a much lower profile....so we could now place the counter top where it should have always been!  It was a job that took us most of the day, but the end result was well worth the effort.