It's slow going on our tub project.
The Builder got a majority of the painting done, and I was so excited that I was going to get to share another finished project. Except for this:
So apparently, even though I used a paint with primer in it, I still should have primered over the freshly textured walls. So, now we're going to have to do some primering, then touch up painting, before I can really consider this done. I'm close. This isn't the only spot that the paint peeled once we took the tape off from painting the trim, and there are several spots that are going to need to be touched up. I'm SO close to having all the trim work done and phase 2 finished. Hopefully just one more week before I can post the finished tub area...
That hasn't actually stopped me from contemplating my next project:
The Builder and I NEED two sinks. After speaking with various girlfriends, it seems to be a common issue that men are terrible about cleaning up their clippings from shaving. Also, he's notorious for leaving water all over the counter. When I'm applying makeup and I lean into the mirror, I walk away with wet spots down the front of me. We haven't had to share a sink in almost 10 years, so the reminder of this during our bathroom renovation has not been pleasant.
I've looked at a lot of vanities. You may remember we previously had two separate vanities. I looked at some from Ikea that would fit this style:
I like the two drawers, particularly the second one which is deep - blow dryer's don't fit well in shallow drawers. The price was decent at $399 per vanity (not including faucets) and the color is good. I'm not worried about the drawer pulls (I don't like them) as those are easy change outs. My concern on this one the counter space. There's almost none. I personally have "stuff" I need on my sink counter. My electric toothbrush. being one, and the various bottle of things women use while getting ready for work. In addition, I need a place to set my hairbrush down, my flat iron, and my blow dryer when I'm using them. This particular sink set up doesn't allow for that. And then there's the fact that Ikea doesn't use real wood. It's all particle board. I've seen how well that holds up over time (my kitchen) and while this is probably better than what was made 20 years ago, it's still particle board. So ultimately we decided this isn't the one.
We've also looked at finished dual vanities. Lots of them. Has anyone else priced a double vanity recently? I'm hear to tell you they are CRAZY expensive. I started with ones that had carrera marble tops, since our shower and master bathtub have the carrera marble. Umh yeah...let me put this in perspective. I spent $600 on tile for our shower. We bought two more boxes at Home Depot for $40 to finish the tub surround. The fixtures for the shower and tub have run about another $200 and we're at about $200 in building supplies for drywall and lumber. Add another $125 for all the molding we've purchased, $75 for the tub and $20 for paint. We'll call it $1200 for everything we've done so far.
So the carrera marble double vanity that I liked (ahem, love!)? Pottery Barn sells it for $2699. Not including the hardware, which is another $99. The faucets, of course, are not included either. And let's not leave out the shipping, $279, the $100 surcharge, and sales tax - $262. Grand total? $3440. It's pretty. Oh so SO pretty. But let's be completely honest. I'm way to cheap to ever really contemplate this as an option.
I've looked at a lot of other options too. I've been on discount web sites like overstock.com. I've been to home web sites like Joss & Main. I've looked at local bath stores. Nothing that was even close to being reasonably priced. Seriously, I just wanted to stay under $1000 for my double vanity. The only thing I could find was a plastic coated melamine at Home Depot that you couldn't pay me to put in. Complete with faux culture marbled sinks. So I did what any other self respecting DIY'er does. I went online and found plans for a custom vanity!
I found the plans for this vanity on Sawdust Girl's web site. I am super excited!!!
Ahem. You may notice this is almost identical to the Pottery Barn vanity...
The Builder and I have priced it out. About $300 for the wood and hardware (drawer sliders, door hinges, etc.) . We're going to go with granite from a local supplier. They quoted us $600 for the dual top with two square, under mount sinks. That includes installation! This is a full 70" vanity, which makes it 5" longer than the Pottery Barn one. Definitely a plus in my book.
For the faucets. I think this pair will go with the shower and bath fixtures we've already installed. At $84 a piece, that would bring our total cost of the final cost of the vanity to $1100. While it still sounds expensive, we only paid $75 for the soaking tub, so this brought the overall cost of our renovation WAY down for this bathroom. Typically tubs of this type go for at least $800, which would have added a significant increase to our budget. We also saved about $600 on the carrera marble for the shower by purchasing it from a tile store that specializes in
selling overages or discontinued stock. We're still way under budget for what a typical bathroom renovation costs, so I'm happy to spend the $1100 to make sure the vanity matches the quality of the rest of the bathroom.
I'm hoping to get started on building the vanity soon so stay tuned!
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