It's p p p PINK!

Ha! After getting rid of the 1968 pink and avocado green vanity in the girls' bath, I now discover that pink is in again. At least that's what Trendir tells me.


Here, in all its lipstick pink glory is the Trend Vanity from Novello. Does anyone else think it is the ugliest vanity ever? I can't imagine anyone installing one in their bath, but if they did I'm pretty sure that it would be ripped out by the next owner. Unless the next owner was Barbie.
Although it would go with the huge sectional in our living room, this is certainly not a trend I'm going to follow.

Girls' Bath Vanity

vanity with ivory coast
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

Well one big improvement today. The Silestone Ivory Coast vanity top arrived with the Toto basin, all in one piece. That means we are one step further to another fully functioning bathroom. we still need to get the faucet in and hooked up and there is a piece of trim that has to go back on the right hand side of the vanity to hide the tile edge but we are almost there. And the good news is that the colour of the countertop (difficult to tell in this photo!) is the same as the sample from e-counters.com, so I'm very happy.

Eye candy

new vanity, vessel sink, vessel faucet
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

The vanity guys just left after installing the wenge floating vanity and they were so patient with me. I was concerned that the faucet would be bumped by the medicine cabinet doors if we set it at regular height, and they measured it out perfectly. The vanity is set at 28" off the floor with another 1" for the countertop. That's about 3" lower than normal but because we have the vessel sink it doesn't feel low. It turned out to be a very good thing that we placed it lower because the plumbing is low in this bath, and the wastepipe would have been smack on the bottom of the cabinet otherwise. As it is, after the plumber has decided where the sleeve for the P-trap will fit, I have to take the drawer back to have it notched.
I don't feel so bad about mis-measuring the plumbing in the girls' bath now, or about adapting the vanity in there.
But don't you think the vanity's awesome? And as for the faucet and wood-effect glass vessel sink: pure fabulousness.

Girls' bathroom

new vanity girls' bath
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

We did make progress on Friday afternoon. In addition to all the work we did on the boys' bath, we finally got the vanity installed in the girls' bath. We went with the option of notching out the backboard and cutting the middle drawer down by half to accommodate the faucet shut off and it slid into place. A small piece of molding was cut for the left side so we can open the drawers and all the hardware was put on. The vanity is almost the same colour as the door and there is certainly plenty of storage in it.
But as soon as it was in position I knew the whole vessel sink and pillar faucet idea wasn't going to work. The vanity is just too high. While it would work fine for Steven and I as we are both tall, it wouldn't work for shorter adults or children. So we'll get an undermount sink and shorter faucet and we can use the ceramic vessel sink in the downstairs bath. It's annoying but not a huge deal.

Measure twice, cut once

not enough room
Originally uploaded by modernemama.

We installed the girls' bath vanity this afternoon, at least we attempted to. I swear I measured this space at least five times: length, height, width, every which way. I measured the plumbing also, but only once and obviously NOT correctly. I need an extra two inches on the left. Bugger.










So far I have come up with two solutions:
1) Notch out the back of the cabinet three inches; remove middle drawer, cut 6" off back and bottom of middle drawer, glue and clamp back shortened front to back piece.
2) Move the water pipe right 2.5"
I knew we had to move the vanity over an inch and put in a filler so we could open the drawers but I never thought it would be 2" short.
Damn imperial tape measure! Metric is so much more precise. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Vanities

We made the decision that the bathroom vanity is toast so I took a break from tile destruction today to check out a few vanities in the local showrooms. I know I swore I would never set foot in Expo again but I was desperate and willing to explore any option.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in the door was that the new Kraftmaid Venecia kitchen displays were finally open. Last time I was there they were waiting for the granite countertops to be installed and I asked the "Can I help you guy" what the cabinet price per linear foot would be. I was told they were very expensive (the doors come from Italy, you know) so they would run $1800. Well guess what? That was another price pulled from the ether by someone who didn't know what he was talking about and couldn't be bothered to find out. The prices on the vignettes ranged from $440-$998. Pricey but half what I had been told. This lack of attention to detail (aka customer service) didn't surprise me but it didn't put me in a positive mood for vanity shopping either.
Of all the vanities on display, and there are lots to choose from, only one would work in the space. This simple square box from Kohler's Purist range is a whopping $1450 for a 24"x22"x16" box.

.
So, practically speaking, to hold toiletries and towels you would need two, plus a countertop and then the sink and faucet. At least $4000. Crazy money.
I didn't find anything I liked anywhere today but at least when I got back home, I found that the garbage fairy had been, swept the bathroom floor and taken all the boxes of debris to the garage.
It's a slow process.