I had about the same situation. Despite the advice of several
friends
who said that gas piping was easy, I had a plumber do it. I had a
clear vision of myself standing outside the hole in the ground where
my house used to be, explaining to the insurance adjuster about a
do-it-yourself gas installation.

Could have probably just used a longer flexible connector. On the
other hand, working with black pipe for gas is very easy but equally
unforgiving if you don't get it right, so you made the right decision:
insurance companies don't have much of a sense of humor about these
things.


But I decided I could probably move the sink plumbing the fairly
small
amount that was needed. At the last minute I decided to have a (VERY
handy) friend come over to help me, but only because I was worried
that I couldn't rip out the old counter, install 2 base cabinets,
countertop and sink in a weekend by myself.

I was very lucky to have had him come over. It ended up taking the
two
of us 2 full days. My house is 50 years old. It turned out that the
trap and the nipple that attached to the waste pipe were too
corroded
to leave, but frozen on and nearly impossible to remove. It was only
my contractor friend's vast experience that saved me from going
without a working kitchen for what might have been weeks (until I
could get a plumber).

You discovered one of the laws of old plumbing: if you touch it, you
will have to keep taking out pieces further back. (Especially if it is
brass.) If you're lucky, you can find a section of galvanized strong
enough to cut with a hack saw (also a good time to talk the wife into
buying that sawzall), stick on a no-hub fitting, and rebuild the bad
parts with pvc. (Just finished doing that under the kitchen sink. The
only galvanized left are the bits of fittings that make an
inaccessible curve in the wall behind the cabinet and down to an
unreachable spot just below in the basement.

Bill