In the previous Bathroom Renovation saga I explained that we had encountered a few issues along the way. Issues 1, 2 and 3 were: inconsistency with tung oil application (a non-issue, really), gaps where the widths of the flooring don’t match up (a much bigger issue), and the bathroom closet (a new diy challenge).

I’ll explain how we resolve those issues once we figure it out ourselves, but for now it’s time for you to meet issues 4 through 101: the sink.

Our sink is a fairly basic (blah) pedestal sink. I mean, it’s okay. It’s served this bathroom well over the years and we’d be happy enough if we could just reuse it as part of our new master bath since we can’t afford our fantasy custom-built vanity. But no. This is a story of encountering problems at every turn. No matter how hard we tried to re-incorporate it into our new bathroom – and we tried very, very hard – the universe had other plans. Let’s re-live the sink journey of the past few weeks, shall we?

The first issue: the copper anchors that had once held the sink to the wall were now sticking out of the wall in an inconvenient location. We would re-use them to re-anchor the sink to the wall if we could, but with the new flooring underneath, the sink would be raised up too high to use them. In fact, these bolts would definitely be in the way.

So we borrowed a friend’s sawzall and cut them off in a jiffy.

Problem solved. That was easy! Hoping this was a sign the rest of the renovation would go smoothly, we kept going with the flooring in the sink area.

Having completed enough flooring past where the pedestal would sit (with only a few flooring-related bumps along the way), we switched our attention back to re-installing the sink. After all, it’d be nice to get the sink out of the bathtub.

We both agreed: if we’re going to reuse the pedestal, we have to at least upgrade the cheapo plastic faucet handles. In case you don’t remember what they looked like:

Really, we couldn’t have reused the faucet even if we wanted to (which, just in case it wasn’t clear, we definitely didn’t want to), because whoever installed this sink hacked together their own non-standard supply lines that we cannot easily duplicate.

And thus began the hunt for a faucet… Oh, and say hello to the next problem.

In what has become the norm in this house, we learned that this sink is not your standard bathroom sink. In addition to the weird non-supply-lines, this sink had an 8″ wide faucet opening, with separate hot and cold faucet handles, instead of a more common 4″ or 6″ wide spread that are all attached. Now, this isn’t actually a bad thing; I think sinks with separate handles actually look classier and are probably more appropriate for a master bath. But that’s also why the faucets cost so much more. The cheapest faucet for our sink is about $90 at Lowe’s, and jumps up pretty quickly to well over $250 for really nice ones. Compare that to about $25 for a low-end faucet for a more common sink, and decent ones in the $60-90 range and you see why we were concerned about our wallets.

For example, some of the options we had included the following faucets from Lowe’s, all of which cost over $150.

Sure, they’re nice faucets, but nearly $200!? Are you kidding me?

Despite these outrageous prices we were still convinced the old sink with a new faucet would be the best route for us, so we bought the lowest-priced decent-looking faucet at Lowe’s and went home to install it. Which brings us to the next issue. (What is this, #47 or so by now?) We couldn’t get the old faucet handles entirely off the sink. As in, we either didn’t have the right tools or the right brain power to figure out how to take it apart. (I think it was a little of both.) We put out a few calls to people with more tools and brains than us and a few days later Mark’s friend came over to help us move forward on this project.

Okay, I realize this story is getting a little long. Stand up and take a stretch break for a second… Ahh, that was nice.  Okay, ready for more?

After Mark and his friend (our hired help) spent about an hour taking apart the faucet – yes, it really did take that long – we discovered yet another issue! The old square faucet had left a square stain on the sink itself that would be visible with the smaller round faucet that we purchased. See the stain around the center hole?

As is often the case in situations like this, Mark’s response to the sink’s discoloration was a lot of expletives. My response was to laugh. Sometimes you just can’t fight against the universe! We were obviously not meant to reuse that sink.

By this time in the project, not having a sink in our bathroom was getting pretty old. Talk about a long and boring story: this was our reality for weeks on end! Brushing our teeth and washing our hands was relegated to the kitchen sink or our roommates’ bathroom. (Or, if you’re Mark, you simply stop brushing your teeth.) I refill water glasses at bedtime from the showerhead. Plus, our toilet is still leaky and the floor is only installed half-way. In the grand scheme of life problems, these aren’t really big issues. I know that. Certainly not worthy of complaint. But forgive me when I say there are times when I would like to get back to at least a standard middle class American bathroom. With a sink.

I know this post is already picture-heavy, but just for a laugh, here’s what our bathroom’s been looking like these days:

So this weekend’s task was to repeat the mantra everything happens for a reason and to get ourselves shopping for another sink, preferably with a faucet already attached. And what do you know? We found it. And installed it. With not a single additional issue.

Really?? Really!!

Here it is, our new (to us) pedestal sink that we found yesterday at ReBuild. Okay, I’ll give credit where credit is due. Mark found it. And he deserves a HUGE thank you. This sink is bigger than our old one, as in taller and wider, and with a deeper sink basin. It really commands a presence in the bathroom like all good master bath sinks should.

We’re thrilled with the new addition to our bathroom, and even more thrilled that it actually cost us less than the new faucet we bought (and can now return) from Lowe’s.

Here’s the breakdown of our sink budget:
Mark’s friend’s time to get the old sink faucet apart only to learn we can’t use it $20
New (to us) pedestal sink with faucet from ReBuild $65
Supply lines $10
Transportation costs for driving around trying to find sinks and faucets for the past month $5-10?
Being one step closer to a master bath we can be happy with? Priceless.