Laundry room remodel

Two years ago I started my laundry room remodel.  We took out the lame wire storage shelf over the washer and dryer to put in oak stock cabinets from Home Depot.  We bought a matching 24" sink cabinet for a new stainless, undermount sink, and a decent American Standard faucet with the pull-down sprayer.  This is all to coordinate with the kitchen, where we had black galaxy granite counters installed, a large undermount single bowl 18-gauge stainless sink, and a Moen touchless faucet with a pull-down sprayer.

I had the best of intentions, but we did not get around to installing the sink cabinet and the fancy new sink.  They have been sitting in the garage for years now, and the gross, white, fiberglass laundry sink has been offending my eyes every day.

Well now the house is going up for sale, so the time to complete the project is now.  I would crumble with embarrassment for anyone to see my laundry room with the filthy sink as it is now.  So with a couple tools and parts in hand, we are ready to do this!

The only difficult part of this is building a 24" countertop for the sink to mount to. I would have cut down a stock piece from home depot that was already laminated, but it was almost $80, and I had the black laminate sheet in the garage ready to go.  So we bought some 3/4" MDF for $15, adhesive, and some carbide bits for our router.

At home, I cut a 24" piece of MDF for the counter and a 5.5"X24" piece for a backsplash.  I screwed the two pieces together.  I though about how the edges would be laminated and though that I wouldn't be able to cut such slim pieces of laminate with my table saw, so instead I banded them with 3/4" birch hot melt edge veneer, which I will paint matte black to match the laminate.  This is a wood veneer tape with heat-activated glue on the other side.  It can be heated in place with a standard iron.  It was incredibly easy to do!  After it was applied, I filed the edges and corners with a straight file and it looked SHARP.  At this point I was impressed with myself.

Til this point, I was thinking of taking the easy way out and doing a drop-in sink instead of undermount.  But I was feeling super confident after the veneer tape, so I thought, I can do this!  Let's do undermount!  So that means cutting a different sink opening with a very even, clean cut, and laminating the interior edge.  I figured between my jigsaw and router I could do this.  After it's cut, a thin piece of laminate covers the whole edge, then the top of the sink is laminated.  The final sink cut out in the laminate is done with a flush trim router bit with a bearing on it to follow the interior edge.

Well, let me tell you.  I have the wrong jigsaw blade and the wrong router bit to cut the MDF.  After more than an hour, I only finished half of the sink cut out and it was nerve-wracking the whole time. The jigsaw blade kept falling out and the router bit chewed the edge.  I probably inhaled a 1/4 pound of made-in-China MDF dust (next time -- mask).  Seeing as it's Easter Sunday, I'm waiting for tomorrow to get the right blade and bit to finish the sink cut out.

Overall, this may have been easier if I went with plywood over the MDF, but this is my first countertop, so I guess you live and you learn.  Hopefully with the right tools, the rest of this will be easy and we get the sink finished before anyone comes to look at the house!

*Cut out sink hole and faucet hole
*Laminate interior edge of sink
*Laminate top of counter and backsplash
*File all edges
*Paint veneer trim black and seal with matte sealer
*Mount sink under the counter with clear silicone and screwed brackets
*Liquid nail the countertop to sink cabinet
*Install faucet
*Make sure all plumbing connections are correct
*Caulk with clear silicone at backsplash joint and sink juncture