Home Improvement/Repair Questions

[jeb6294]

Need everybody’s interior decorating ideas. Wife is supposed to get home on the 28th. I was thinking about replacing the kitchen sink/faucet before she gets home....really everything should be replaced but that isn’t in the budget or time allowance. As you can see, the white sink has gotten pretty dingy over time and it looks even worse with the white countertop. I was debating a matte black sink with a stainless faucet thinking that may go with the black stove and stainless fridge and dishwasher. Not sure how it’d look with the existing bronze handles since they were bought to do with the current faucet. Other thought was get a standard stainless sink and keep the faucet or get a newer version but I’ve never liked those sinks with high rise faucets because the metal is too thin.

 

[leggo PE]

Personally, from the photos, I think the current faucet and handles match the handles on all of your cabinets nicely. I might just replace the sink with a stainless steel one and call it a day. Is replacing with another white sink out of consideration, because of the discoloring over time?

 

[blybrook PE]

My sink looks similar for discoloration, but a good scrub with comet brings back the shine (usually quarterly). 
 

If it were me, I’d go for the stainless sink and an upgraded faucet in the same color or stainless. Skip the nickel and chrome. 

 

[jeb6294]

I put in a stainless sink and a similar faucet at my old house and I didn’t like it. The metal is too thin and there’s too much leverage with the tall faucet so it always seemed wobbly, but it was just the metal bending.

Also rather not do another white sink just because everything else is white and i think it’s probably beyond cleaning at this point.

The faucet goes with the handles because I got everything in oil rubbed bronze. That’s why I’m not sure about the black sink going with the oil rubbed bronze hardware.

 

[Road Guy]

What about one of those old school farmhouse looking big white sinks people put  in nowadays? 

i hate to say ikea but they have some cool stuff in that department.

 

[Supe]

I would second the farmhouse sink, otherwise, black granite composite sinks are SO much better than stainless in terms of look and durability.  FWIW, I will never install another double bowl sink ever again, and everyone I know who has switched from double to single has not regretted it.  

 

[jeb6294]

Farmhouse would be neat, but a little more involved and a lot more expensive than I was looking to spend, especially since this is really just a bandaid to make it look a little better until the cabinets and countertop get replaced.

 

[Supe]

In that case, I'd go granite composite as they're reasonably inexpensive.  

 

[Violator]

If you get new countertops doesn't that usually result in a new sink also?

 

[leggo PE]

I would second the farmhouse sink, otherwise, black granite composite sinks are SO much better than stainless in terms of look and durability.  FWIW, I will never install another double bowl sink ever again, and everyone I know who has switched from double to single has not regretted it.  

What do you do if something ever happens to your (I'm guessing) single sink drain? That's the argument I've heard for having a double sink. I've had both. I kind of like two sinks because we hand wash all dishes. If you have a dishwasher, I don't see any particular advantage to having a double sinks.

 

[Supe]

What do you do if something ever happens to your (I'm guessing) single sink drain?

Same thing as with a double, since the double sink drains tie together before the trap, so you just risk a murky mess of food juice backing up through the "clean side" and ruining those freshly hand washed dishes.

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

In terms of the thinness of the stainless sinks, is it possible to add a wood filler underneath the sink to make that portion sturdier? Some faucets are installed directly through a countertop, so you should have enough thread on the faucet connections 

 

[jeb6294]

I took the Comet suggestion and that cleaned it up quite a bit...still not great, but better than it was. When I started looking at sinks at HD/Lowes/Menards, I also noticed that the stainless sinks are much heavier gauge that they used to be. The one I put in 20 years ago was probably 22-ga while a lot of the newer ones are 18 to 16-ga. I wonder if that's a direct result of more high-rise faucets nowadays.

 

[Road Guy]

Back when my wife would go out of town she just seemed happy if the house was cleaned when she got home!

I have been wanting to take up the carpet on our stairs and replace with oak tread, but I really need to get the whole family out of the house for a weekend to make that work out - 

 

[envirotex]

You'd be surprised how much dust is eliminated just by removing the carpet on the stairs...it was a noticeable improvement.  No more walking around in socks, though...

 

[Road Guy]

Ive slowly been doing the whole downstairs - we are going to keep the upstairs bedrooms carpet since we have "winter" but wanted to do the stairs in wood since it looks so much better.  

I did our old house in Atlanta and it was a great improvement - but yeah you have to get used to the slip factor.

The hardest part will really be painting the goofy shaped stair well before I put the floors in - which is the wifes SOP  

 

[jeb6294]

Our stairs and upstairs hallway were carpet, but have been bare unfinished hardwood flooring for years now. Guy is going to be here to measure for carpet tomorrow. Hopefully they can get it in before she gets home.

I try to clean the best I can before she comes home, but I’ve also been kicking around the idea of hiring someone to come in a do a serious house cleaning before she gets home too.

One other thing I’m in the process of doing is updating the front of the house. Brick on the bottom, 2nd floor is light beige vinyl siding. Tearing off the old faded forest green shutters and replacing them with “Wineberry” shutters from HD. Painted the side light frames on the front door to match and got a new steel door painted to match...the old door looks pretty rough but I don’t want to replace the whole thing because our dogs are idiots and scratch up everything every time somebody comes to the door.

 

[jeb6294]

Any thoughts on how long silicone caulk (the stuff you use with a caulking gun) should last in an unopened tube?

To help dress up the kitchen sink/counter, I was going to replace the gnarly caulk around the sink and finally do the caulk where the counter meets the wall. There’s a tube out in the garage, but TBH, it’s been there so long that I don’t even know how old it is.

If it hasn’t solidified, do you suppose it’s still good?

 

[blybrook PE]

I’ve got several tubes that are going on 5 years old in my garage. I used two last weekend without issue. 
 

If they haven’t frozen, you should be ok. Worst case, you’ll have to pull and replace in a week if it didn’t setup properly. 

 

[wilheldp_PE]

I’ve got several tubes that are going on 5 years old in my garage. I used two last weekend without issue. 
 

If they haven’t frozen, you should be ok. Worst case, you’ll have to pull and replace in a week if it didn’t setup properly. 

I must have bought some crappy stuff, then.  I bought a tube of silicone caulk when I finished my basement (2010), but ended up not using it.  I needed it a few years ago for another project, and it never solidified (stayed liquidy/tacky for about 2 weeks before I gave up and bought some new stuff).