Getting the Price Down on the Bath Vanity

I’ve felt a little bit guilty about how much more say I had with the house Tito lives in than he has. He sold off most of his furniture. I decided down to the inch where every door was going. He said, “And you’re so good at it.” So that made me feel better. He’s gotten excited about a lot of my unfinished plans, and when it comes to projects that will make the house a more pleasant place to live, we’re moving the bath vanity to the short list. I got the bathroom working with the sink that came with the house and the microwave cart from every college student’s apartment for extra storage. The mirror is a recent upgrade; it came with a dresser we bought that I’ll show you later.

Anyways, Plan A was IKEA cabinets with Semihandmade fronts, a marble countertop, and 2 undermount sinks. I wasn’t 100% sure if 2 sinks would be worth it but we bump into each other brushing our teeth at the same time pretty often.

Then I saw Semihandmade’s back-of-the-envelope price quote and kinda tabled Plan A. I write a blog and that means I’m supposed to repurpose a dresser. But mid century modern furniture is in style and that means people expect to get money for it on Craigslist. So when I found this piece that was the right width and has doors where the pipes go, I grabbed it STAT and put it in my parents’ garage.

My dad was complaining to my sister and her fiance about how I made a mess of his garage with this. She said, “I’m pretty sure everything else in there is your fault Dad.”

And when I got it home, I had a bit of buyer’s remorse. It’s a little low and the cabinets aren’t big enough to set sinks into. I thought of using vessel sinks (which I don’t particularly like) and then thought of the dumb way the faucets would be set down in a crevasse that’s impossible to clean and thought maybe I should sell off the dresser and start over. Then I found a much less dumb vessel sink.

This makes me feel much better. We can push them against the backsplash and caulk them in so there will be no dumb crevasse attracting filth. And the big porcelain deck means that at least the soap will be at a comfortable height.

With the threat of a very expensive front door in my head, I wanted to get the price down even more though. But remember how we got married? Well, there are now third party wedding registry Web sites so you can add things from any store. Ours is mostly building materials, and we already have both faucets and one of the sinks.

That just leaves us with the countertop. I could try to refinish the wooden top that came with the dresser, but between durability, color matching, and wanting to add a little extra height, I’d rather stick with the marble. And the Irishman came through with a crazy, beautiful offer.

He’s back working at a big old Catholic church and there’s a disused old altar in the basement. And, he said, “They ain’t got nothin’ to do with this. It’s the best. Carrara marble. You can shine light through it. Let me know what size you need and I’ll run it through the tile saw for you.”

So yeah, having an altar in our bathroom is the best kind of insane. For the record, I’m getting it with permission, so it’s less insane than I thought when he first offered it. And I’m excited that for about 80% less than what Plan A would have cost, we’ll soon have a stylish bathroom.