Problems already – bathroom remodel
While tile demolition is half over, no remodel is complete without its own set of problems. Nothing ever goes by the book – at least for me!
I ran into our first problem during the very first step, removing the toilet. The bolts had rusted so badly that I had to bust the toilet bottom to get it off – I was disappointed that we wouldn’t get to recycle it at the second-hand facility. (I could have packed both kids back into the car and gone to the hardware store to buy bolt cutters, I suppose… but perhaps I’m not as dedicated to recycling as I should be.)
And a couple problems (bad underlayment and weak plaster walls) later, I prepared to remove the vanity and ran into this:
What is that!?!
For some reason the pipes on the wall had been discontinued and cut off in the basement but never removed. New pipes were drilled up directly from the basement into the vanity and then built out inside the cabinet.
This picture is after I managed to knock the back off the cabinet to disconnect it from the wall pipes. Can you see how it would be impossible to move the vanity with these pipes in place? I had really wanted to recycle this whole vanity, but I had to knock off the back and cut out the bottom as well. So unfortunately it’s landfill fodder.
We had our hearts set on a new pedestal sink, but because of the floor location of these pipes we may not be able to get one. We are having a plumber come give us an estimate on rerouting the pipes back into the wall… but that doesn’t exactly jive with our “do this as cheaply as possible” goal. Sigh.
Cross your fingers that this will be the last problem we have!
May 15th, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I hate my pedestal sink. I have no were to keep extra toilet paper, soap or hand towels without adding storage in the bathroom. I would prefer the boxey vanity and get the storage. I sometimes think about getting a new sink unit but I hate to spend the money when I have a newish sink now. It seams wasteful.