Fitting the new ceramic kitchen sink.

One of the first things I made clear to my partner when we bought our first house was that I wanted an old fashioned butler style sink. I didn't care about the layout of the kitchen, or the style of cupboard doors as long as I got the sink of my dreams. 

However I soon realised that buying a traditional butler style sink would be setting me back nearly £1000 and our plans soon had to change. However on a recent trip up to Ikea in Bristol we noticed this ceramic sink in a butler style at a quarter of the cost. It was a no brainer, the sink was ordered and would arrive in a few days. 

Unpacking the sink was a little nerve wracking, and once unpacked looked a whole heap bigger than it did in the store. 

James then got to work adjusting the base unit that would house the new sink.

Next on the job list is to sort out the water connection and drainage to the new sink before finally fitting the unit. 

Now all we need to do is buy a beautiful wooden draining rack. (not a plank of wood on plinths) and choose our kitchen cupboard doors and that's another section of kitchen completed. Oh... and keep it tidy unlike the picture!

Living with no water in your bathroom for a month!

After a month with no bathroom at all not only do we have a bathroom suite in place but we also have a water supply connected to the room. It was quite a trial and error process with several leaks that needed fixing but finally we can turn the taps and get running water. 

However it wasn't as plain sailing as I described and we had a slight issue with the water pressure being up rather high and with the style of taps that we had chosen with the flowing waterfall effect. When the tap was turned the water came shooting out of the tap at such a speed that it completely cleared the bath and poured a fountain onto the floor. 

With a slight adjustment to the water pressure we now have the facilities to have a bath and use the sink in the bathroom. Next step connecting up the shower!

The new bathroom suite arrives

After several weeks without a working bathroom and having to use the office showers and our kitchen for washing and cleaning teeth it's really exciting when our new bathroom suite arrives. I couldn't resist testing out the bath straight away... Ok so it need's some work before I can really test it out but it won't be long now until we have a gorgeous bathroom and can relax in our new home rather than work on it every night. 

We temporarily put the kitchen units in place that we are using in the bathroom and balance the sink in place to get an idea of how it will look. If you ignore all the boxes, the bare concrete walls and the open kitchen units you can kind of visualize our spangly new bathroom... 

James get's straight to work fitting the bath in place and connecting up the water supply and waste pipes. As soon as the bath is fitted I can not wait to jump in and have a bath at home again rather than showering at the office. 

The toilet is replaced temporarily

With a lot of work to do it really is important to get our toilet back up and running as a priority. The toilet is reconnected in it's old position using the existing waste pipe etc whilst the rest of the work is completed.

The walls start to go up around the bathroom and it starts to look a lot tidier, it's going to take a while to get the shower and bath connected and ready to use so for the time being we are back in the house but using work to shower each morning. It's not ideal and a pain driving to work in your pajamas's but will all be worth it in the end when the bathroom is complete.

Bathroom Plumbing.

With the new floor in place it's time to start running all the pipework and plumbing for the new bathroom suite. James is actually doing this himself so it's taking quite a bit of time and a lot of trial and error to get completed as he is not a qualified plumber. With the floor marked out for what unit goes where the pipes are all in place ready to receive the suite and hope it is all plumbed in correctly. 

The plumbing in place for the new sink.

plumbing for the shower and bath in place.

And lastly the plumbing in place for the toilet.