If you recall, yesterday I was facing a pretty significant issue with the vanity. The drain line for the sink was sitting right up against the drawer track. It was so close that I just wasn't sure I was going to be able to use this vanity. And I loved this vanity after searching forever for one that would work!
So with the help of Pa and Ma yet again today, I measured. And measured again. And again. The choice was literally coming down to 1/16th's of inches. And since it was that close, did I want the drawer track to be weak where it mounted to the vanity?! Agh, what to do?!
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| The vanity wasn't looking like it would fit with the drain line and the track of the drawers on the right side. |
Well, after LOTS of measuring and eye-balling, I decided to go for it. I was going to cut a hole in the vanity and try to slowly work my way over to the drawer track until the drain pipe fit. The plan was fairly simple! But in order to make the hole even smaller (and preserve more vanity strength) I removed the drain pipe from the wall so that the larger screw cap end wouldn't have to fit through the hole in the vanity. I could now just use the smaller end that went into the wall (and through the vanity).
I started with a drilled pilot hole. "Well, the vanity is now yours," said Dad. Yup, no going back now. And then I used a Dremel-style tool to cut my hole. Of course, it went through the particle board material so easily. And I slowly made my hole bigger! And then bigger. And then voila! I had it! The pipe fit through...and the drawer still had enough meat in the vanity to stay intact!
The gamble had paid off! The vanity was a go!!! So exciting!!!
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| The vanity is in!!! |
And with that, the transformation of the bathroom took on full-steam. The new tile floors were in. The vanity was now set in place. The sink was added. The new faucet was installed. The old mirror came down. The wall was repainted. The ugly box light came down. And that's when we hit yet another snafu. But it wasn't necessarily a surprise. Just as we had discovered upstairs with the Master Bathroom light fixture, the electrician didn't really care about the drywall when he installed the fixture. "Hey, this will be here forever." "And if it's not, well, it's not my problem." So rather than just a small hole for the Romex wire, he just ripped out an entire section of drywall which the light fixture would later cover up. It's understandable...to an extent. But now I was paying for his decision.
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| The huge mirror! |
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| Bye, bye, mirror! |
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| Look at that drywall! |
Regardless, it was going to be another drywall patch job in a bathroom that was going to have more. The drywall behind the toilet had been wet and moldy, so I removed a section along the floor. I also decided to remove the long towel bar that hung over the toilet. It was more for a shower towel rather than a hand towel, and I didn't care for the look. So now I had several holes to patch...a job that I don't really like doing! But it needed to be done.
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| The area behind the toilet. |
So I cut out odd shapes of drywall and patched the various areas.
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| The long hole is now no more. |
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| I cut out a section of drywall for behind the toilet. |
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| And then started the patching job! I'm awful at this! |
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| The first coat of mud. |
And then I hit another setback. Such a common theme in this house! With the new tile, the floor is quite a bit above the toilet flange. So I purchased a toilet flange extension, but I had a very significant problem. The tile installers didn't measure very well, and they covered up part of the toilet flange. So when I tried to lay the new extension on top of the original toilet flange, it would not fit. None of the holes line up. This is a huge problem, actually. The tile needs to be cut! But it's already installed!
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| The tile covers the flange at the bottom of the picture. I can't add the extension! |
Dad recommended that I contact the tile installer and have him fix it, but just getting the tiles installed was a bit of an issue. The more I reflect on the whole process, the more I realize I really didn't get the best guys in the business. I'm noticing more and more errors in their work. And after paying thousands of dollars, that's quite frustrating. I'm still waiting on having the hardwood thresholds and trim installed, too!
And now this. Frankly, I didn't even want to deal with the installers anymore, so I decided just to do the cut myself. I tried with a Dremel-style tool, but that did nothing. I tried to sand it with a power tool, but that did nothing. I needed a tile cutter for a power tool, and it was worth the expense of a purchase rather than waiting on a crew that I didn't trust to show up.
So I headed to Menard's and bought two diamond-cutting blades for my saw. And they were expensive! Nearly $20 for one blade!!! All for one cut! I chewed on that decision for the day, and I finally decided that it was silly to spend that money on one cut. So what if I'm set back for a little bit. The contractor needs to fix his mistake. I'll call him in the morning.
So that's the route I took.
While Dad and I were working in the bathroom all day, not to sit idle, Mom was feverishly working on cleaning my remaining floor trim pieces. That's a boring project that I have not completed, but now that the floors are down, it's time to wrap up the whole project! She was invaluable in those efforts. So after the pieces were cleaned, back on they went! What a difference the final touches make. Seriously, it's the small things that just make the biggest difference.
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| So many pieces to go back up! |
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| Mom working away at all the paint, dust, and hair! |
So while I had to halt my process on the bathroom, other projects moved forward. I am going to call the flooring contractor to see what he can do about the poor measuring in the bathroom. I am ready to move forward.
I was able to sand and put a second coat on the holes in the bathroom, so they will be ready for paint tomorrow! Little by little this bathroom is coming together!
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