Vanities

One of the biggest pains of the renovation so far has been BATHROOM VANITIES. The vanity we tore out of the hall bathroom was a 60", but we wanted something smaller to make the room feel bigger.

Man! Vanities are bafflingly expensive, even dumb ones! I finally settled on this one from Home Depot because it was the least expensive one that still looked OK. 

They delivered it, and we opened the box only to find out that the whole back part of the vanity was coming off, so we returned it. The second one they sent looked OK so Jonathan installed it. It bothered us, though, because the drawers already had chipping paint and they hit each other every time we closed them. For a $900 purchase, you expect more!! 

When I called to arrange to return the 2nd vanity, they offered 10% off of any vanity and I decided to just be crazy and order the one that I really wanted. When it arrived we were blown away. It was GORGEOUS. It also weighed, like, 800 lbs because it was solid hardwood. The marble top was soooo pretty. The finish was kind of pearlized and absolutely beautiful. Jonathan installed the day before we left for Silver Bay/the family reunion. The only possible issue was that it was so much fancier than any other fixture in the house. 

                                      

On our way back from Silver Bay, we detoured through Pittsburgh so that we could pick up a bunch of house things from IKEA, including a little 24" hemnes vanity for the boys bathroom. While we were standing in the bathroom show area, we saw the 40" hemnes vanity. It was $300. "Honey," I said, "This vanity is exactly our speed." SO we bought the hemnes vanity and took advantage of Home Depot's amazing 90 day return policy.

We are SO HAPPY with it. It is exactly what we want. I am filled with joy and relieve every single time I brush my teeth. Thanks, IKEA. 

Microwave & Cabinet Pulls

We cook a lot, but we have never lived in a place with a functioning range hood. Yeah, sometimes we leave the house smelling like sautéed peppers, but it hasn't seemed like a huge deal so far.

The range hood vs. over-range microwave question was something that we put off until after we moved in. It soon became obvious that we needed the microwave off the counter. It made the kitchen feel cramped and made everyone feel grumpy, see?: 

The other thing that made everyone feel grumpy was the unsightly hole above the range (this was taken before the countertops were in, but the hole remained for our first month or so in the house. Blech.

If you ever want to feel like everyone thinks you are dumb, decide to get an over-range microwave and then read online forums about which is better, a hood or an OTR microwave. Obviously, only a neanderthal would get an OTR microwave and a hood is absolutely essential if you ever cook at all. Happily, since we have gone almost a decade with no hood and there was no other option for getting the microwave off of the counter, we went for the OTR microwave.

The microwave does have a hood-function and since the ductwork already existed (mostly), Jonathan vented it through the upper cabinet, through the soffit, through the attic, and outside. I think it actually works pretty well. At least, better than anything we've had (not had) before!

While he was doing all of that (Labor Day, I think?) I installed all of the cabinet hardware. Life is so much easier now. Oh! And we bought a new stove/oven. We like it a lot.

Miraculous Occurrences During Move-In Week Way Back When

Yeah, that last post is correct…complete burnout during move-in week!

We moved in on a Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning, lo and behold, the cabinet installers came!!! We had been prepared to live a bathtub-dishwashing week of squalor, so this was a major blessing. The thing is, when they called that Monday and said that they only come down south from Chicago every Wednesday and this Wednesday was full, rather than just accept it, I told them our situation and they changed for us! Feels good to be pro-active.

It's a carrera-marble-look formica countertop. The countertop was the first thing our friend mentioned when he said, "Don't over-improve this house!" I was wistful, but I seriously could not be more happy with our countertops. It's always nice when you can save 3-5K and still like the appearance/function. And I'm SO relieved that we didn't try my crazy idea from This Old House of DIY soapstone. What a nightmare.

A few days before we moved in it looked like this...


And then it looked like this:



Remember how we didn't have interior doors for our first few days in the house? Amazingly, Jonathan's dad had decided to use his single day of vacation + his frequent flier miles to fly out here and fix a $1000 car issue that we had. He arrived at 3AM on July 4th and left at 3AM on July 6th. The miraculous part is that he had the car fixed in 30 minutes flat. We had been prepared for two straight days of work, so this was remarkable. That left a whole two days for…hanging doors!!!  Somehow it made me feel good to see that even for a guy who knows everything about homebuilding, door slabs are a huge pain. He also put a back on our kitchen peninsula.