One of the drawbacks to having multiple projects going at any one time is trying to remember where certain tools got left. Is it in the basement by the toolbench? Or is it out on the side porch with the insulation? Did I leave it out in the garage with the Scout? My screwgun is still AWOL and presumed dead, and I have an entire toolcaddy that disappeared sometime last month with my 1/2 metric sockets.

Monday night, after bathing the wee one and tucking her into bed with Ox and Teddy, I spent a half hour gathering tools from four different locations around the grounds of the Lockardugan estate and prepared to do battle with the kitchen sink. Our kitchen is fabulous, and it’s been five years of bliss since the renovation, but there’s one thing that didn’t get done right which is beginning to pose a problem: Our sink. We bought an undermount double sink to go with our granite countertops, and at first blush we loved everything about it. But after a month or two, we noticed it was beginning to sag downwards from the stone, to the point where the silicone seal was peeling apart. I looked underneath and found that the installer had used two pieces of scrapwood on either side of the lip to tack it in place, a decidedly unprofessional solution to a potentially disastrous problem. (Both sinks full of water, plus the weight of the disposal, equals 100 lbs. or more).

I started propping the metal lip from underneath with lengths of wood cut to fit, but I soon got nervous about putting pressure on the weakest point of the granite slab (the sink cutout), so I took all of that stuff out. Instead, I carved all of the old silicone out—the stuff that’s separating and turning funky colors—and replaced it with new mold-resistant silicone. After five years, it’s doubtful I’ll get any love from the company who installed the counter, but I’m going to call and pitch a fit anyway just to see what happens.

(FYI, the proper method of undermount sink installation involves epoxy-bonding metal clips to the underside of the granite which hold the sink in place).