My new vanity that I built is all complete & painted except for a top. I built this vanity to the same dimensions as my old one so its 24” x 18”. Lowes had some nice premade granite tops that were to fit a “standard size vanity” that I thought would look nice. Stupid me I never thought of actually checking dimensions as most of the 24” vanities I looked at were 18” deep. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found that my standard size counter top was for the larger version of a 24” vanity… 24"x21". DOH! So back to Lowes it went and I went searching for alternatives.

I can buy a cultured marble top (similar to what I already have but in much better condition) for $50 or I can get a granite top 25x19 made for $250-300+. How crazy is that considering the larger 25"x22" was only $188 after tax at Lowes.

Nothing is ever easy, or cheap. 

Now things are starting to take shape. I decided to skim coat all the walls since a good part of the bathroom had new drywall or a badly done mud job and I figured this way I would have a uniform surface to paint on.

Here are the walls after a nice skim coat.

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While I was in the midst of my bathroom reno I decided to take down the ceiling light and see if I could rewire it so the light and fan worked independantly.

It is one of those bowl shaped fixures with the nut at the bottom holding everything up. Easy to take off, right? HA! I was turning and turning and turning and it wasn’t coming off, or even looking like it was loosening up. Then finally it came off and what did I find?

This is how the fixture was being supported…

I kid you not. Thankfully that duct tape never failed or else it would landed directly on someones head if they were in the room. A 15 minute run to Home Depot and $5 later I had the proper fixture screws and nuts and it was put back together correctly.

WHAT WERE THESE PEOPLE THINKING???

Once all the walls were stripped of wall paper and bad drywall repaired I was still left with a few surprises. The previous homeowners never heard of primer and just wallpapered over bare drywall. Not to mention the terrible mud job above the shower/tub area.

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Last night I wanted to pick up some crown moulding, nothing fancy just some standard 2 5/8” stuff. I was debating whether I should go to Lowes or Home Depot. I like the Lowes lumber better but Home Depot is closer and they always seemed to have a large stock of crown moulding.

I get to HD, head to the moulding section and find that the bin where the 2 5/8” stuff is filled with larger dimension moulding and of the few scraps of the proper sized stuff they in the bin had more waves in it than a beach in Waikiki. And lets not forget the fact that I needed a shower after touching a few scraps of crown. You’d think Pig Pen worked in the store. Needless to say I walked out with nothing and will head to Lowes this morning where I should of gone in the first place.

I used to love HD but they seem to be letting me down lately. Maybe it’s the particular store I go to? There are two others locally and one is a super center, which i’ve been in a few times and its definitely nicer, but with them being just as far as Lowes why bother.

Update: Well Lowes really wasn’t any better today. They have 5 pieces left and they all had problems. So off to the next HD where they had plenty in stock and all were clean too!

The DEMOLITION!

Well alright, there wasn't that much demoltion, other than removing the vanity and a few pieces of bad sheetrock. There were a few surprises like the lack of a wall on the side of the vanity and no tile on the floor.

All the bad drywall was removed, some blocking was put in the wall for some of the new drywall and everything was buttoned back up, ready for tape and mud.

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Ever since I moved into my condo in 2003 I’ve been less than pleased with the renovations the previous homeowners had made. Ugly wallpaper, a poorly installed vanity and a makeshift tile backsplash were just the start of it. So I finally decided this past January to undertake the project which would involve taking down the wallpaper, replacing the vanity, painting and installing beadboard wainscoting. I would of really liked to replace the tile job around the tub but since this is my only bathroom I didn’t want to be without a shower for too many days in case I ran into problems. The tile is in ok condition but the person who installed them never heard of a level or at least a straightedge because some of the tiles sit lower than the others. But I’ll have to make due.

Little did I know what I was about to uncover when I undertook this project. I’m sure it could of been worse but there was certainly more work than I was hoping to have to do. Here are some of the before pictures…

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Well after a long hiatus it looks like I’m back in the blogging seat again, or at least after I build one I will be.

Stay tuned while I finish tidying up around here, more blogging entries are headed your way!