Installing a countertop in under 30 seconds

Once again, inclement weather seemed to motivate me to make a major change to the house. Lauren and I have been staying out there more in the cold weather. It is actually warmer in the house with the wood stove going than it is in our apartment. Last week I hooked up the little propane cook stove, but without a surface to prepare food on it was surprisingly hard to cook a meal. After staying in the house for the first day of the storm, we realized that it was time for a countertop.

By the time I was able to get back to the shop with the measurements and a small sink that I found at the ReStore, it was already six o'clock, and the snow drifts were building. I used a piece of knotty-pine plywood that I had at the shop for the countertop, cutting a hole for the sink and coping around the posts. I chopped up some 2x4's for the frame, loaded the tools and headed back out to the house. By this time it was nearly ten o'clock and the temperature had plummeted to one degree, with 20 mph winds. Near blizzard conditions. It took three trips through the woods to bring the supplies up. The last one must have been a sight if anyone had been watching. The eight foot countertop acting as a sail under my arm was knocking me around, but the cast iron sink I was wearing as a hat kept me safe. Once I was back in the warmth and comfort of the house the installation went very well. Enjoy the video!

In the next few days I will get the drain hooked up to a catch bucket under the house so we can at least do some light dish washing. After all, this is still just a temporary solution until I build a real cabinet and concrete countertops.