2014 Home Improvements, Part Two: New Bathroom Sink

We have a huge bathroom, but it's not really functional.  I think it measures 8x12, with 9-foot ceilings.  But no closets, no shelves.

But we've made it work.

One thing I particularly haven't liked, ever since we moved in, is the sink.  The faucet top was missing the cap that covered the screw, making that little area a well for dirt, gunk, and general nastiness.  I don't have a close-up "before" of the faucet, and only because Paul reminded me to take them as he was starting, so I just quickly snapped a few and got out of his way.

Yeah, it was gross.  Pretty sure I hadn't really moved everything and cleaned it in a month.  It's pretty ghetto.  There's been a mystery crack in the basin since we moved in. (How does that happen?)  The drain broke about a year ago, and we've lost all sorts of objects down that thing.  Some retrieved, some lost forever.  (FYI, a magnet on a string will recover bobby pins and hair clips.)

All it's missing is some cigarette burns to make it completely ghetto.

So I saw this faucet in the Menards ad around Christmastime.  It's a Pfister Ideal.  (And it's a chunk cheaper now than it was when we bought it.)  It was lust at first sight.  I don't know what the boys do when they're brushing their teeth, but when I go in after they're in bed, the sink is usually completely blue from one side of the basin to the other.  I knew I had to have this faucet with the pull-out sprayer.  So with that overly large tax return, we went to Menards and got a new countertop and faucet for the bathroom, along with some other stuff.  (More projects to come!  And I promise..... next post will be about the big one!)

So we bought the faucet the beginning of March, but then decided to check on doing some other repairs before we dumped a lot of time into plumbing and painting in the bathroom.  So the stuff has been in our shop.... waiting....  Until Tuesday.

Over the weekend the old faucet started leaking.  Not just a slow drip, either.  Paul was working nights (of course), so after the weekend, he checked.  There were no shut-off valves under the sink (of course), so we had to shut off the whole house.  Paul's theory is that no plumbing job can be done with just one trip to town.  So we made our first trip Tuesday morning, and went and got the shut offs (he was skeptical they would even work).  Supposedly we had everything else......

Who wouldn't love a man who can do this???

Well, he got the shut offs put in underneath, then removed the old counter top.  He dropped the drain in, then attached the faucet, and.... voila!

One hour, one trip to town - it has to be a record! 

Now my toiletries trays actually match the faucet.
And the drain matches, too!  It's a "click shut" style, and was included in the box with the faucet..

Have I mentioned how excited I am about the pull-out sprayer?  I threatened the boys with something near death if I catch them spraying each other or the floor, anywhere other than the sink basin.  But I haven't seen a smear of toothpaste anywhere since Tuesday, and Jacob asked me this morning if he could clean the bathroom for me.

Hey, whatever it takes, huh??

The problem is, the new sink and faucet make the rest of the bathroom look even worse.  I immediately cleaned the toilet and got on my hands and knees and scrubbed the filth on the floor around it (GAG).  I got rid of the huge pile of laundry today.  Now I need to scrub the rest of the floor (probably won't happen) and take a case of Magic Erasers to the shower situation (also probably won't happen).  And then we have to paint, but that will be after we finish "the big one."

Stay tuned...... :)