Bathroom Redo Goes From Simple to Complicated.

Or in other words, that's life!  

Three weeks ago, my husband and I started a simple bathroom make over.  It was going to be very basic: new paint job, new toilet paper holder, towel holder, light fixture and wall hung cabinet.  

A one weekend job.  Easy, right?  Wrong.

Week one:  The case of sticky, icky paint.

The burgundy color turned out to be harder to cover with the bright race car red paint than either of us anticipated.  We've covered a lot of walls over the years; teal to gold, deep blue to light grey, red to turquoise and it's always gone smoothly in one coat.  Not this time.  We used a new paint which was supposed to be a primer and paint in one and did an enamel finish over a matte. Perhaps it was one of these changes or both combined, I don't know.  Here's what I do know: next time don't buy that paint!  Do what we did before and buy a high hiding primer and add the color you want.  Believe me, it really, really works!

Week two:  Bad fixtures, difficult cabinets and mystery faucets.

The light fixture had to be special ordered.  It arrived and the glass had chips all around the edge.  The light is up but I'm still waiting for the replacement glass.  The cabinet fit nicely and had all parts intact.  I was excited because I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  Nope.  That was just me staring into the glaring bare light bulbs too long.  The cabinet was super heavy and required two of us, wood blocks and much patience to get it securely on the wall.  After searching 4 home improvement stores, searching online, we finally special ordered our faucet from a local plumbing showroom paying way more than I anticipated.  It also meant waiting for the new faucet which added another week to complete the bathroom.

Week three:  Bent faucets, drains and that sinking feeling...

The special order faucet arrived.  The day came to install it.  It was bent in several places, which at first seemed just mildly disappointing, until we turned the water back on.  It leaked!    Off it came, went back to the store where another one was special ordered.  My wonderful husband worked super hard to take the original plumbing out of the pedestal sink so the new plumbing could be installed.  This was no easy task!  It required laying on his back on the floor curled between the toilet and sink base.  The drain in a pedestal sink is not easily accessible like a regular sink.  Most often, the plumbing is put into the sink before the sink is installed in the bathroom.  Since we thought we were keeping the old pedestal sink, this was the only way to get it done.  When he got the drain out of the sink, we found it was corroded and a good sized chunk of the porcelain sink drain area was broken.  It probably had always been broken and that explains corrosion of the drain pipe area.  This meant that we needed to replace the pedestal sink.    Off we went to the home improvement store again...

Week four:  New faucet, new sink, new feelings...

The new special order faucet has arrived, again.  It appears to be in good condition this time.  The new pedestal is unloaded and sitting in the bathroom waiting for the plumbing install.  Once that's done, it will be screwed to the wall and caulked to the floor.  The cabinet is up.  The mirror is up.  The towel and toilet paper holders are hung.  Art and accessories are making an appearance.  Perhaps, this is the weekend when it will be done!

It only took us four weeks to get a one weekend project completed!

Oh, wait. I still haven't received the light fixture glass replacements.  

Okay.  Four weeks and counting...