never bored: October 2010

Everything but the bathroom sink...literally. That is how close we are to being done with this project! Can you believe it? We got the sink in last week, and are in the finishing stages of decorating and being done with the bathroom. In fact, next time I post, its will be before/after shots and final shots of the bathroom! We had our sink picked out from the very beginning of the project. It was a large white sink with a black cabinet and matching shelf, all from IKEA. We purchased everything on October 8, and then went home and began to build all the pieces. One interesting note is that anything you buy from IKEA, you have to build yourself, that is why it is so cheap. We had purchased our bedroom furniture as well as a shelf for our living room from there before, and had successfully put them all together, but when we got this stuff out of the box it was like we were pros! It was together in no time. I guess we have definitely picked up some additional skills as well as confidence from the RENO project.

Anyway, we got it all together, and then began to look at where the plumbing would line up. This is where it got a little more complicated than we had hoped (I feel like I've said that before...hmmm). The faucet we picked out from IKEA did not have standard supply connections. Rather than jimmy it and risk bad or leaky connections, we opted for a plain faucet from the good ole US of A, purchased at HD. There were only a few options for a single hole sink. So, the faucet isnt exactly what we wanted, but I still think it looks nice, and it works great.

Also, we replaced the beige light switch with a nice white one. A 69 cent fix that really makes a huge difference!

Stop all the potty talk!
That's right...it's toilet time. Let's just start by saying it took us 4 tries to find the right toilet. We measured our "rough-in," which I guess is the distance from the wall to the center of the hole in the ground, which turned out to be 11 inches. So we head out to Home Depot only to realize that they only come in 10 in or 12 in sizes. Great, we just HAD to be different, didn't we? We look around for a while reading and thinking, and we decide to go with the 10 in because we figure and the HD guy says that smaller is better since you can always move it around to get it to fit, where as if its too big, its not like you have any room to play with. As we are trying to get the "2-person lift" toilet into the back seat of our car, Jonathan said the funniest thing. I was trying to help, because the thing was heavy. I must have been doing more harm than good, because that is when Jonathan calmly suggested, "You do something else." I spent the next few minutes doubled over with laughter, so that was the end of my helping-spree...ha!

Anyway, so we get the sucker home only to find it is like 3 inches out from the wall! I mean, that would work, but honestly it would look pretty funny. We finish up for that day with no toilet. I pick up another one on my way home from work the next day. It is supposedly the same model, but the 12 in size. Some HD employee helps me load it in the car (of course, I can't help but chuckle to myself). I get it home and we take it upstairs, then get it out of the box only to find that obviously someone had used this toilet! I don't mean used used, I just mean they put in the wax ring and tried to install it, then decided to box it all back up and return it to HD like it was brand new. It was so disgusting, that we couldn't even set it down on the tile floor to dry-fit it! We took it back to HD and told them what a mess it was, and just did a quick exchange for the exact same toilet. Well, guess what? We brought that one home, took it out and dry fit the dad-gum thing only to find that it was the exact same size as the original 10 in toilet we tried (and still had sitting in our bedroom!!!) Ugh! We still don't understand how this stupid toilet could have been marked a 12 in when it was obviously a 10 in. So, long story longer....we preceded to take that one back to HD and buy a completely different model that was supposedly 12 in. I swore that if that one did not fit, I was giving up! Lucky for us, we have noticed that the HD employees change shifts or move around or something like every 15 minutes, so the same people who had seen me twice before that day didn't see me again (or maybe they did, and there are still stories about the "weird persistent toilet lady" floating around the break room).

So we get it home, out of the box, and dry-fit it. Looks great! Now its time for the actual installation. It wasn't too bad, but we are still nervous about it. We have flushed it a couple of times (I took a video of this process, lol) and it seems to work! You can check out some pictures of the toilet process below, and stay tuned, because the only major thing left is the sink and we are so close to being done!!!