Our sink, take 2

So if you remember, my first attempt at building our main bathroom's vanity sink failed. Aside from the difficulty I had removing the mold, there were lots of little issues that would have haunted me - off-center faucet hole, caulk residue, cracked section in the back...

Well, I finally re-poured it. I changed up the design this time, though. I used white cement and sand and even added a bright blue crack-looking line. I'm getting quite creative:) It went much better this time, and I even managed to remove the mold without much difficulty.

On a similar note, I'm ready to pour Mark's second sink. Given the warm weather, hopefully that'll happen sometime this week.

Done and done

So the Ciriaco bathroom sink #1 is completed. It took a little muscling and persuasion (in the form of a reciprocating saw), but it is contently living in it's new home. Thanks to Mark, Michael, and Justin for your help! One of these days, I'll have to start paying you.

A couple of points about the pictures below. First, there's supposed to be a on the wall, but we broke it when we were removing it. Whoops. Second, there are matching backsplash pieces, but we haven't installed them yet. And finally, notice the sweet sweet rough rock facing. Good call Mark.

A happy customer

Now that that's done, I need to get started rebuilding the mold for the other one - an exact mirror of the first one. Maybe this time, we won't require a reciprocating saw.

Sinks! Glorious sinks!

So I've embarked on a new avenue of concrete work - sinks. Yes, you can make sinks out of concrete. And yes, they kick butt, just like their countertop brethren. There's not really popular yet, at least in the midwest, but I'm bound to change that, one bathroom and kitchen at a time. For now, I'm focusing on two - my own main-floor bathroom, and my friend Mark's master bathroom.

Ours will be a simple wedge-shaped pedestal-like sink. Below is the mold, including my little helper.

Mark's will be a wave-like shape and integrated into a countertop. He'll actually have two (mirror images), but we're making them one at a time. You can't see it very well, but the front and right sides have a rock-face mold thing so that the concrete looks like a rough rock edge. Very cool. Good choice, Mark.

Here's Cole helping us get ready to pour. And yes, he's wearing a respirator. Safety first, kids. 

Mark graciously helped pour them. Talk about a conversation starter for future company. "Hey, come check out the sink I made." Everyone knows that chicks dig concrete, right? 

Pouring went well. It was the next part that caused problems. The molds would NOT, for the love of everything holy, come out. I tried everything - blowing air down the sides, attacking them with putty knives, and pouring ice water inside so that they'd (theoretically) shrink. I even tried suspending them from the ceiling and jumping on them. I actually ended up breaking both molds in the process. Very sad. Thankfully, they're under warranty.

FINALLY, I was somehow able to pull them out. I was elated! Unfortunately, I realized that somehow the faucet knockout shifted about 1" off center during the pour - just enough to make it look wrong. As such, I'm preparing to re-pour it. Sad.

The concrete next to the sink mold actually took on a very cool glass-smooth black and gray rippled look. I'm not sure why, but I really like the effect.

Mark's sink turned out really cool, despite the mold issues. Notice the rock face.

The next step is to sand it smooth. Then we'll be ready for staining and sealing! Yippee!

Oh yeah, we're done!

So I forgot to make it blog-official... we've completed the Peterson's kitchen! By "we," I mean the small army of guys two sacrificed their Saturday morning (and some blood) to help me move the 8 pieces from my garage to their house.

It turned out really well. Sure, Justin gashed open his hand moving in the first piece and I ended up going to the doc to see if my foot was broken by placing one of the pieces on top, but I'm sure those are normal countertop installation activities.

Thanks again to everyone for the help. And a special thanks to the Petersons for giving me a chance and letting me broaden my skills.

Loaded on the trailer...

Unloading the "small" ones

Taking a break. Well deserved.

Done and done.

Brown & Blue & Awesome

I was a little worried at first. Granted, I'm not a very visually-inclined person, so you understand my initial hesitation with the idea of a brown & blue countertop. But let me tell you, I think it looks really cool! I hope the clients agree:) If nothing else, the kitchen will definitely become a conversation starter - hopefully in a good way.
 

I've gone through about 3 rounds of slurrying the blue in then sanding it down, just to make sure the voids are completely filled in. Next, I'll go over them with finer sanding pads just to make sure it's as smooth as possible. After that will be time for sealant then finally wax. They'll probably be slightly lighter than in the pictures (they're drenched in water), but hopefully not too much.

And lesson learned. Wear face protection, unless you want to look like a this:

My wife made me shower before getting in bed. I don't understand why.

Peterson Update

Here's some updates on the Peterson job. A while back, we finalized the color scheme - a brown base color with blue marbling. Below are the colors. The right blue is the one we're going with - more of a blue/gray than a true blue.

A couple of weeks ago, some buddies and I actually poured everything. It only took a couple of hours of work and some large pizzas, but it was totally worth it for as good of a job as they did.

It took about 7 batches. Yes, 7, but the guys did a great job, especially since I forgot to have them add the diamond lathe until the first piece was already filled. Whoops.

A couple of days layer, we flipped everything over. Two of the pieces are noticably heavier than the others, but with some help, they went right over.

After some sanding and grinding, it was time to slurry with the blue. Yes, it's supposed to be that blue. Next, I'll get the grinder out and sand down the blue, which will leave a really cool brown base with blue marbling effect. I've done it for two of the pieces since this picture, and it looks really really cool. I'll get some more pictures up once soon.

So far, everything's going really well. Hopefully it continues that way.

I'm back!

It's been a while since we last talked, so I wanted to let you know of my latest endeavors.

First, I'm going to build my first bathroom sink. Yes, a sink. I doubt you're as excited about this as me, but I'm used to that. Below is the computer rendering of what I will be building for our 1st floor bathroom. It'll be 3 inches thick on the edges and have 5 angled facets that lead to the drain. Should be fun.

Second, I'm starting work on my second job. This time it's a complete kitchen - 80 sq ft! Below is the initial rendering. It'll be a gray/blue base color with a slightly darker gray marbling. The edging will be a demi-bullnose on all but the front-most skinny island thing with the post, which will have an ogee edge to better tie it into the style of the adjacent room. Due to the sheer size, it'll be comprise of 6 pieces. I made the templates last week, meaning that next week I can start building the mold and making some sample slabs to test the color. I can't wait! Happy 4th of July!