I'm Sinking!!!

It's funny how projects have a tendancy to grow in scope.

This weekend, I decided it was about time to spend some gift cards to Home Depot I had sitting around. A few weeks ago, I did some minor remodeling in my bathroom. About the only thing I didn't touch was the sink and faucet (both original to the house), so I decided to replace the faucet to match the brushed nickel accessories. My new faucet used up all of my gift cards, and I ended up only having to pay a little over a buck to cover the rest [Trip 1].

When I got home to look at the condition of my sink, I decided to look into getting a new sink (I've been wanting a pedestal sink to add a more refine look), and I found a pedestal sink (sink and pedestal) for about $60 [Trip 2]. Deal! I picked it up along with a new drain since my old one was pretty corroded. It was so corroded that when I went to disconnect the P-trap, it broke off!

I got the sink out to see how it would fit (hoping for a straight replacement), and I discovered that the drain for the new sink was 7 inches from the wall (the old sink's was 6 inches from the wall) and the height was 2 inches taller. This required some creative plumbing. I looked at was was available, and picked up some PVC fitting since they looked like they would make up the extra inch [Trip 3]. After seeing how the PVC joined together and not being particularly impressed, I decided to see what I could do in metal [Trip 4]. I ended up splicing a longer P-trap in place (after taking a hacksaw to the stem sticking out of the wall) and adding an extention piece to the vertical part of the drain to bring it up to the correct height, and it all just barely fit.


Last night I decided to tackle the installation since I couldn't wait any longer. This started with shutting off the water. When the shut-off valves wouldn't close all the way, I figured it was as good a time as any to replace those, too [Trip 5]. While replacing these I also replaced the little collars that covered the gap where the pipe comes out of the wall because they were (you guessed it) corroded. After installing the new shut-off valves without remembering to replace the collars (twice!), everything else went smoothly...

Until I hooked up the drain. I had two separate leaks (due to unclear instructions, of course). After all of this and about 3.5 hours, I had it all done and holding water.



While I was on my Trip 3, I thought that I would also get a new brushed nickel handle for my toilet to replace the "chrome" one that came with it. I picked up a handle from the same brand and design of all of my other accessories thinking it would be a straight replacement. WRONG! The problem with my toilet is that the handle is at an angle to the front. Thinking I could just bend the handle lever produced this...

...along with a "aww crap" stare that lasted about 5 minutes.
[Trip 6]
This time I found a handle labeled "Universal Fit". The funny thing about "Universal Fit" is that the instructions say...

(Read Step 3)
How universal is it if you have to bend it?!?

But now, peace has come to my bathroom once more now that I'm done with these updates.


Then again, my shower door needs replacing.........