An elegant solution

I didn’t have to mess around with wooden dowels to install the kitchen sink after all. Before I started on the kitchen I made a small collection of fixings – brackets, stuff like that. I’ve been working my way through them as I knew from experience I would but so far had only used one plastic block-type corner fixing. And I’d had enough trouble even locating them. Brico Depot didn’t recognise the product at all (despite them being a ‘go-to’ fixing in the UK) but I found them at Leroy Merlin.

It had occurred to me that now I’d notched out for the sink’s securing brackets there might be sufficient clearance for them to pass these plastic fixings which, if carefully fitted for height, would then give the brackets a ‘step’ to bite on. And so it proved. Here’s what I’m talking about.

And sure enough all of the fixings got a grip and eventually the sink was installed. I say ‘eventually’ because in the process, after I’d forced a lot of white silicone all around under the edge of the sink to form a waterproof seal one of the fixing brackets fell apart. It had to be the most difficult one to get at, behind the sink bowl, so the whole thing had to come out again. However, after many magic cuss words that always seem to do the trick, the sink was finally in and looking good.

I thought twice about permanently installing the waste because it could make getting at the mixer tap connections more difficult than necessary. In the end I did and it both looked ‘right’ and worked fine with no leaks after I’d filled the sink with several litres of water and let it go.

The next job would then have been fitting the mixer tap. However, the sink has to be drilled with a hole 35mm in diameter to take it (I purposely chose an undrilled sink as I did in my old house rather than one with two holes in it to allow for the drainer to go either way, one of which then has to be plugged – yuck!) and drilling a hole that big ends up being a bit brutal. I decided therefore to leave that until tomorrow when the silicone seal around the sink top has had a chance to cure.

So I had an early finish at around 5.30pm which gave me a chance to have a clean up, fit the shelves, empty the cooker to which I’d fitted a plug earlier (cooker and hob are now both connected) and replace the shelves in the dishwasher which have been gathering dust in the living room for too long.

To finish off, an especially notable event happened today. Gerald, a neighbour with connections to the Mairie, turned up with my house number which I fitted before resuming work in the house.

This means that I’m officially now a proper ‘Fleuracois’ and my house is now officially on the record. The latter unfortunately also means that the tax authorities will now know precisely where to send their demands 🙁