Working on the Siding and Antique Cast Iron Sink
Working on the siding and antique cast iron sink came with many frustrations and didn’t seem to go as we had planned.
We had certainly come a long way on our renovations! At this point we were tying up loose ends on various projects such as working on the siding, monitoring our new landscape swale, and finding a home for our antique cast iron sink. Then we would get ready for new projects like having an HVAC unit installed!
WORKING ON THE SIDING
Nate was working on the siding and chiseled some of the concrete away with a hammer and chisel. That way he could fit a piece of trim at the bottom.
The reason we had to do this was because we made a mistake with repairing the concrete foundation footer earlier on. We didn’t know what we were doing and rebuilt the footer to come out past the siding, which was a big no-no. Oops! So, this is what we had to do to “fix” the little problem we accidentally created because we didn’t know what we were doing at that time.
Luckily, we were able to find a lumbar store nearby that carried the same type of lap siding as our original one from the 1930’s. However, it was just newer wood~ similar to purchasing a replica of our original siding I suppose.
Nate was also repairing the rafter tails in the back of the house with new planks of wood. He cut and measured them to fit the size of the ones currently under the soffits. Then he would screw them next to the rotted rafter tails to repair them in that area. Later he would need to come through again and cut all the boards the same size across so he could put up a fascia board. This would allow us to then install gutters. Maybe that would help with the rain and puddling. You think?!
MONITORING THE SWALE
And speaking of rain and gutters, here came another storm to help us test out our swale again and also make adjustments to it.
It was so cool that we finally got our swale put in! Seems like we are passing the test as the swale really does help to keep the water away from the house. The water pools up behind the house and then drains off in a u-shape all the way to the street. It’s very effective and we’re so glad that we were able to have that done. It was very much needed to keep the water away from the foundation. Very important as we have been learning.
In the midst of the pouring rain, Nate is running around the backyard and raking the muddy swale areas. What was he thinking?! I was worried that he would catch a cold! He said that he needed to get the swale flowing right. I’m assuming to make sure it was running off properly away from the house and to the street in our front yard. Ahh~ the wonderful joys of home ownership, eh?! Never a dull moment, especially when you are renovating a fixer upper!
ANTIQUE CAST IRON SINK
After working on the siding, we worked on the antique cast iron sink together.
Nate built us a little shelf for the sink from the 1930’s wood that we salvaged from the ceiling walls in our cottage. He would still need to tweak it a bit later as some of the wood has been warped over the years. We still may need to build on to the shelf by adding cabinets or put a curtain around it or something because it’s all just open right now. It was so creative to be able to build our own little shelf for the cast iron sink to have a home in.
Now that we had a shelf ready to go, we needed to figure out how to actually put this heavy sink into it. Nate had the bright idea to solicit my help on the task! We start to talk through the best way for us to work together to lift this heavy thing. I was perplexed and really not sure at all how I could help. I’m not so gifted in the muscles department and not very strong at all.
All I could think was, how was I going to do this to help out! Nate assured me by saying to just try and if I couldn’t, no big deal.
Alright, so the moment of truth. Was I able to lift the cast iron sink? Well let’s just see how this unfolds. Nate has me try to lift my side by myself at first to test out my strength. Guess how far I was able to lift it? Well, let me just say, not at all! I literally could not lift that thang at all! I tried again, still no go. How the heck?! It was not working and a bit scary actually.
That cast iron sink was so heavy. I don’t know how anyone could lift it. Although if Nate had better help than me, I’m sure it would’ve worked out. It’s crazy how heavy it was.
We bought the sink from a Facebook Marketplace seller in Oklahoma. And the guy helped Nate to somehow unload it from his truck to our mid-sized sedan!
Ok, so I was determined to try again and actually lift the sucker! I grabbed all the strength I had, even grunted a bit because you know, that just makes you feel stronger! Nate coached me to tilt the sink back a bit. Yes, it’s starting to work. I think I can do it now. Then we started to tilt it up to place it into the shelf. We’re almost there, getting so close!
As we look at how far we still needed to go, we realized how dangerous it could be. Nate agreed it might not be a good idea. We didn’t want to end up dropping it or something and hurt ourselves. Nate was thankful that I at least tried to help out!
We have learned to be innovative while working on the siding and antique cast iron sink even when we didn’t really know what we were doing!
Psalm 20:4
May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS
Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own. Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead!
You can also watch a video about this here.
To see more adventures of our tiny fixer upper journey, click on the links below.
🏚 DRY FITTING OUR ANTIQUE CAST IRON SINK AND NOT WORRYING 💖📖
