So the faucet in the bathroom has been leaking for some time now. It started out as a small drip and progressed over the past few weeks into more of a ‘drip-drip-drip’ situation. Finally on Saturday after work I decided to fix it. I knew exactly what it was — I needed a new cartridge, spring, and seat. I’ve had to do this before with this faucet. What I needed to do was determine if it was the hot or cold side that needed the repair. As it turned out, it was the hot side — the same side I repaired less then a year ago. While getting the parts to replace it and doing the repair was now big deal, I was wondering if maybe we should get a new faucet, one that would not be needing repairs every few months. Then I started thinking about the vanity itself. I had put that one in with my dad back in 2000 when I moved into this house. At that point in the house work, I was running out of money and got pretty much the cheapest vanity I could. Over the course of the next 15 years, most of the veneer has worn off and the bottom side of it facing the tub was seriously rotting away from water be splashed on it from when Jack was a toddler. We knew it had to be replaced soon and it was on our repair list for 2016. But, if I was thinking about a new faucet why not get a new vanity as well? I grabbed my iPad and started looking online. I found a few that I liked, but I knew my wife was sick and tired (me too honestly) of having a small little 19′ vanity. Our bathroom is very small and it’s a nice size for it, but getting something bigger would be very nice. So I did some measuring and if we got rid of the standing shelving unit above the toilet, we could fit a 25″ vanity. The only issue with that is that we keep all of our stuff on this shelving unit. So I sat down next to Jess with my iPad in hand and told her what I was thinking. She was totally on board for a new vanity and liked the idea of finally getting a bigger one. The only problem was the shelving unit. But we agreed we’d see what our options were when we got to Home Depot.
Long story short, a leaky faucet turned into this leaving Home Depot with us.
In all we ended up getting a new vanity, a new faucet, new medicine cabinet, and a cabinet for above the toilet to replace the shelving unit we were getting rid of. What should have been 2 little packages of part for less than $15 turned into a 3/4 remodel of the bathroom. Yeah, I guess that happens sometimes…
On the way home from Home Depot I picked up some pizzas and started in on the bathroom after eating said delicious pizza. I managed to get the vanity, sink, and faucet installed before it was time for me to go to bed for work. The entire sink would have been hooked up but this vanity is about 4″ higher then our old one (didn’t know that when we bought it) and I needed a longer supply line for the hot water and an small additional piece of PVC to connect the sink to the trap. This would have to wait until Sunday after work.
After work on Sunday I headed across the parking lot to Lowe’s and picked up what I needed. When I got home the sink was done in about 10 minutes. It was then time to eat lunch before installing the rest of the bathroom. A few hours later everything was installed. I put on all the hardware and cleaned up the bathroom of all the debris and my tools in time for the kids to take their baths. Aside from a few finishing touches, the install is complete. All that really remains is some new lights (there are some ugly shadows being cast in there with the new cabinets on the wall) and some new paint. Both of these will be tackled in the spring.
So what does it all look like? Well let me show you the old bathroom first. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to take pictures before working since when I got home with the pizzas my wife had already ripped out most of the old bathroom fixtures. But what I do have is what my bathroom looked like back in 2004, the last time I did work on the bathroom. Surprisingly, it’s stayed almost exactly the same for the past 12 years. All that has changed was the toilet, but that’s a whole other story for another time. So here is a picture of the bathroom as it was on Saturday morning (time shifted back to 2004).
And here is the new bathroom as it looked on Sunday night after everything new was installed.
All in all I would say not too shabby for a totally spontaneous weekend remodel. Even though I did have to make a few trips back to Home Depot to swap out the vanity and medicine cabinet since they just wouldn’t work when we got home, I would certainly call this project a success!
