This Sink is Sunk

Jodi:  So last we left off, the powder room was looking like this:

The we put down the baseboard, the same way we did the top molding.  We cut each piece to size, put them in place, cut the notch out of the one board for the vent cover, and then nailed them into place.

Then I went around and caulked all the edges and spackled all of the nail holes to get ready to paint.  There are tons of good blogs out there who can give you step by step instructions, but since we're learning as we go, I'll just say what works well for us.  I caulk the seams so they disappear, and use spackle on the nail holes because I can sand them down (can't sand caulk, it gets like dried glue with little bits of sand paper in it, ha ha), and get a nice, smooth finish like there were never any nails there to begin with.

Which leads us to...  the sink.

We figured we'd throw it in there to see how it looks, but not hook it up yet, since I hadn't painted the bead board yet.  And it's a good thing we did...

Randy:  THE SINK DIDN'T FIT!  If you look at the picture above with the plumbing, the drain goes thru the floor. When you add the sink, the basin is about 4" from the wall. 

Jodi:  If we were ok with the basin being so far from the wall AND taking out the trap in the pipes, we could keep it.  We had visions on people losing wedding rings down there, never to be seen again.  Does anyone want to buy a beautiful pedestal sink on Craig's list? We have one for sale.

So while I was painting the beadboard, Randy was in charge of re-doing the old 1979 builder's grade mirror that we took down.  We looked at Lowes, Target and Home Goods, and we couldn't find a mirror we liked.  We were also looking at mirrors with nice frames in a comparable size for around $50.  We were already over budget, so I asked Randy to frame out the mirror with extra molding from the bathroom.  It was pretty, and it had that lip that fit around the mirror perfectly.

Since the mirror would be going over part of the wall that was not a flat surface, we decided to attach the frame to the mirror, and hang it like a picture, rather than attaching the mirror back to the wall, and installing the molding directly into the wall.

He did a great job!  Since it would be sitting over the very same molding it was surrounded with, I knew we couldn't leave it white.  I took a chance and sprayed it with oiled rubbed bronze spray paint, which is what I used to spray the door knob.  I wasn't sure how it would look, but I had it on hand, and  figured we could always paint over it again.

It's hard to tell here, but it ended up looking like a million bucks!  Or a $50 mirror from Target, but free!  Except a couple of bucks for the L brackets Randy used to keep the mirror in the frame, we had everything else already.  Just wait til you see this baby up on the wall.

It matches the stand we got at Target (while shopping for mirrors) that will go behind the toilet.  Do you see if coming together now?  Just a little sneak peek :)

So as Randy said, the new sink didn't work.  We considered buying a new vanity, but it just wasn't in the budget.  So I rescued the old one that Randy was using as a saw horse on the back porch.  I scrubbed it down, sanded it, and primed it.

Now if you were doing this for the long haul, you would want to use some sort of special hard-wearing cabinet paint.  No offense, Mom and Dad, but I used the high gloss white I used to paint the bead board.  If it looks crappy in a year, we'll revisit the sink.

I also sanded, primed, and ORBed the knobs and hinges and stuff.   I even did the faucet.  We'll see how it holds up.

So then came the reinstalling of the original sink, now all fancy again with the help of some paint and a magic eraser.

Randy:  I'd like to tell you why I'd never say that I'm up to "Jewish plumbing." When I finally reinstalled the plumbing, I had leaks at the hot water intake, the cold water intake and the trap. Yup, that's everywhere! I quickly fixed the hot and cold water. One was not tight enough. One was threaded badly. But the trap... I made 2 trips to Lowe's. Finally, I asked this guy because we had 2 days before we're picking up Jodi's parents'.

"Do you have any plumbing experience?"

"28 years."

"If you help me, I will come back and give you a hug."

"What's wrong?"

"I have a leak at the trap, but the thread tape and putty didn't stop it."

"Try this gasket... and stop over-torquing it. Hand tighten... then a little crank."

"That's it?!"

"That's it."

NO F***ING WAY! I called Jodi over to watch what I thought would be my greatest failure. And sure enough... it worked!

That's a real lesson for you folks. It might not be entertaining, but if you're installing plumbing... there you go. It's a little tip.

Jodi:  We'll be back with the wrap up and the final reveal!