Are we there yet?

In our usual fashion, we kind of did things out of order. When we have family in town helping with projects, we try to maximize our time. While my mom, Rex, and Tim worked on the bathroom, Steve and I assembled the vanity.

We purchased this vanity from Ikea. Tim and I searched high and low for a vanity that had 2 sinks and could fit in our bathroom. We only had 42 inches of clearance from the wall to the edge of the toilet. This made for a tight fit considering the average double sink vanity is 60 inches. A small one comes in at 48 inches. Our Ikea vanity? Just 39 inches wide. Thank you efficient Swedish design! The vanity, medicine cabinet/mirrors, and two side shelving units (pictured below) cost less than $500. Less expensive than a custom vanity but more expensive than your builder basic single sink vanity.

In typical Ikea fashion, there were 9,347 pieces to assemble. Steve and I are pretty diligent rule followers, so this wasn't a difficult task for us. We meticulously followed the instructions and pieced it together.

When we assembled this, we knew we were ready for it so we kept it in our green room aka project room. This room is where all of the bathroom supplies lived. When we needed to hide the chaos, we shut the door to the green room and the bathroom. Out of sight, out of mind.

Little did we know, we wouldn't actually have time to install the vanity until late April. Tim and I were pushing to finish the bathroom reno before our annual Memorial Day party. A bathroom reno isn't one of those things you can work on for a few minutes. If you embark on a task, you need to be able to devote sufficient time to finish it. You can't stop in the middle of grouting or plumbing. It just doesn't work. We did work on these tasks piecemeal though.

Fast forward to April and we're setting the vanity in the bathroom. Just place it, level it, and screw it into the studs.

Then came the hard part. Tim and I sat on the floor for a few hours hooking up this complicated plumbing scenario. Here he is smiling with the complex plumbing handiwork!

We were putting in a double sink where only one previously existed. Additionally, the Ikea vanity packed a mighty punch in terms of storage space, so the plumbing was crammed into a mere 3 inches at the back of the cabinet. It had to fit there to make room for the drawers.

Next step: install the faucets.

We purchased these pour or drip style faucets from Menards. They were on sale for $100 each (hey, fixtures aren't cheap, but they sure do make a "wow" statement).  They had the sleek look that we were going for and they were brushed nickel which we have elsewhere in the house (doorknobs, kitchen pulls, etc.). We also needed a faucet that utilized a single hole for plumbing (vs. the kind that fit in three holes in the sink). When people visit our home or see our bathroom for the first time, they are always amazed by the drip function of the faucets. Fancy.

I mentioned before that we updated this light fixture once. We initially picked this light fixture (though it had all 3 covers in tact). These were pretty cheap (to the tune of $25 I think). After we started the bathroom renovation I had second thoughts. I just didn't think this light fixture fit the look of the bathroom. I searched the home improvement stores, but I didn't really see anything else I liked either.

Then, I had the idea to just replace the covers. Hmm... I purchased two options from Home Depot. The left cover is clear glass with little bubbles in it. It's hard to see in this dark photo taken late at night. I didn't like the exposed look of the hardware/portion where the bulb screws in. I thought the glass would match the modern look of our bathroom, but it did not.

We opted for the middle option. It had brown tones to match the rest of the bathroom but had a modern twist. It also covered the bulb completely which I preferred. It was modern and earth toned, exactly like our bathroom.

Here's the whole medicine cabinet assembled. You can see the mirrors which have storage behind. There's also two side shelving units for exposed storage.

It was about this time that Tim and I began to wonder if we were ever going to finish this bathroom renovation. Most of the major pieces were in so we felt so close, yet so far away. It left us with that stuck in the car feeling, "Are we there yet?"