This came about rather unexpectedly. We had a leak in the second bathroom, and while we were awaiting the plumber's arrival, I did try to put epoxy around the leak in the hopes that it would stop it up so the water would stop leaking out. The only time the plumber could get here was the end of the week - which is tomorrow. Needless to say the epoxy was a bust. But at least the water leak wasn't so bad that it was flooding the whole bathroom and spilling into the neighboring space. What it did do was cause the necessity of changing out the cabinet and sink that originally came in the trailer - while it wasn't ruined entirely, it definitely has suffered some damage. And we really just needed an excuse.
And since we were getting one bathroom cabinet, why not get a second bathroom cabinet for my little bathroom? :D We ended up getting a 24" grey cabinet with a marble (man made marble, not high end expensive marble) sink/counter top. OMG, how exciting!
The sink, counter and cabinet that came built into the bathroom was....not ideal. A plastic round sink which does not work very well with my coffin shaped soap dish. The counter top was this ugly speckled brown, and it also leaned, so we had to keep a neatly folded up towel on the right hand side in the back in order to catch the water. The cabinet was a decent size, but it had a board about 4 or 5 inches from the back where the shelf ended and had another board stick up about 4 inches as a partial wall. Behind that, it was just the plumbing, which boasted a gaping several inch hole in the floor which had to be filled in last year as we had 2 mice get in the house. (Joy.) More about that hole and the foam which sealed it later on in this post....Oh, and the faucet was really not very nice. Let's be real here, I hated it.
Step one of this project was pretty simply - disconnect the sink and take out the old faucet. We started in my bathroom. The trouble here is that I didn't have the right tool to loosen the bolts. It is a very tight space, and the only thing I had on hand that would work was a pair of pliers which I had to turn straight up and down and loosen it that way as I couldn't get the pliers to fit in the space to turn it right to left. It worked, sink was disconnected, faucet removed, simple.
Next came the fun part....Fun is being used sarcastically here. The cabinet was built onto a frame which was secured via long screws into the floor and walls. They did come out fairly easily, but this is where it got tricky. We basically had to break the countertop off, and then try to tear out the framing once the sides and front got hammered off.
And it is at this point that tragedy struck. As I was busting the framing away from the wall, in my gusto, I managed to snag the hot water line and break it clean off where the 2 halves were joined together. It was the worst feeling in the world. Water sprayed, frantic voices shouted "turn the water off!" I was so horrified.
After using the wet vac to clean up the water all over the floor, all we could do, was head to the Home Depot. Luckily it was a beautiful warm day and I didn't have to change out of my wet clothes before leaving. I brought the broken off piece with me, and a very helpful employee found the right Sharkbite coupling that I needed, and the tool that I needed if I didn't fit the pipe in correctly. I also grabbed other needed tools. I came home confident and happy to be able to fix the problem. I inhaled my Taco Bell soft tacos and got right back to work.
Well, it didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. I didn't fit the pipes in tight enough, so my first try resulted in water spraying out at both ends. And that tool? Really not easy to use! After struggling - in tears, I'll admit it. The thought of having no running water for nearly 2 days wasn't an appealing thought - I was finally able to pop the pieces of pipe out of the coupling, with some much needed assistance to pull the pipe out while I used every ounce of strength on that tool. Happily, it came out and my next try was a winner. All I was out was 2 bloody knuckles.
We called it a day at that point. The next day we had another sink and cabinet to knock out, and also the base of the cabinet that was still left in my bathroom.
On the following day (today), I admit to really not being very excited to work on the bathroom project again. I took out the second sink and faucet and happily left the cabinet demo to someone else. (I already busted one pipe....) I decided the best use of my time was to clean up all the unneeded tools, etc in my bathroom and to start cutting down that mountain of foam that was essentially holding the cabinet base captive as it was all over the back side of the right hand 1x2 and very back 1X2 of the cabinet around the plumbing.
I very carefully - with the help of a screw driver and hammer - pried the plywood off the frame, and then took each piece of 1X 2's off a piece at a time, leaving only that consarded back piece. I slowly worked on sawing down the Foam Mountain. My hope was to chisel out enough that I could simply pull that back piece out of the foam. It did eventually work, but it was a little challenging. There was a piece of linoleum that was folded up against the piece of wood that made it too tight to pull the board out. And I had sawed off all of the foam that I could get to around it. Finally, I bent the staples back flush against the wood, pushed the piece of wood as far back against the wall as I could, bent the linoleum piece forward and pulled and wiggled the board until I was able to get it out! Woo hoo! Success!
After that, I sawed the Foam Mountain down until it is - I think - not going to be in the way of putting the cabinet in, Which we can't do until we get a jigsaw to cut out the floor of the cabinet to accommodate the plumbing. That foam is just an awful mess. I wasn't the one who put it in, but in their defense, it was a rogue can of foam and a tight space to even get back to begin with. Here's how it looks now. I regret not taking more pics along the way.
At this point, I'm putting more thought into the refacing of the whole bathroom beyond simply putting in the new cabinet. The walls are hideous, and full of dings and dents that need to be filled in. That giant mirror has to come down. The strips all need to be removed and taped and mudded. (You see how the corner has that horrible gap.) I'd really like to have the wall freshly painted before putting in the cabinet. It's a lot of work, and will take some time, but honestly, it's fine not having a sink in the bathroom. It's totally something we can live with so we can take the time to do the bathroom correctly. And man, I'd love to have that bathroom spruced up!
