Monday, October 6, 2008

The Money Pit




That's what this bathroom renovation is. The money pit. I don't know if you ever saw the movie but I feel like I'm living that right now.

We thought, after getting the tile down and the light fixture moved, that we were coasting toward easy street. Who was I kidding? It never works like that. We McMullans (my maiden name) are notorious for having stuff go horribly wrong.

This weekend we decided to install the cabinet and vanity. We measured where the pipes were in the wall so that we could drill the holes in the cabinet. And, yep, here's where the problem starts. The water pipes are perfectly lined up with the drawers in the cabinet. Meaning we would never be able to get the water shut off in an emergency. Why don't we just take the drawers out if such an emergency would happen, you ask? Because we can't figure out how to get the drawers out. Seriously. I know it shouldn't be hard. But after 45 minutes of working with the drawers, they won't come out. So, see, that's a problem. Because you just know that you aren't going to have 45 minutes to fiddle with drawers if there's a water break.

So then we thought, why not just put a hole between the open space under the sink and the drawers. We could simply reach through and turn off the pipes that way if necessary. The problem there is that there is a support board there. A 2 inch board. And, I'm not so keen on messing up something that helps it stay stable.

The only solution we could come up with was to have a plumber come and move the pipes over a few inches. I know, I know. The cost! But, what else can we do? Seriously, if you know something, share it with me!! We need a plumber anyway to put in the shower/tub fixtures so we'll have him do it all at once.

Now, one more kicker. The vanity top. The one I loved. It was marble and oh so elegant. Not happening. We have taken the top back three times now due to cracks. We discovered that this weekend too. After returning the third one, we agreed that we aren't meant to have marble. We found one in granite we like At Home Depot. And it's cheaper. So that's sweet. But still - the marble was just gorgeous. But if it was so susceptible to getting chips in the padded box, can you imagine what a five year old could do to it?

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