I know I promised my next post would be about painting the cabinets but a new problem in Le Chateau Ghetto has emerged which needs my attention and yours as readers. Our piece of urban paradise (yes, this is a joke) has a full bath and a half bath. They stack on top of each other at least until a few weeks ago when parts of the upstairs bathroom collapsed into the downstairs half bath. (Please, see attached picture of the hole in the downstairs ceiling).

When we bought the place we discovered the old owners had taken a sledgehammer to a few things 'ere they parted and one of them was the upstairs potty. We replaced the potty with a spare the in-laws had. (Yes, it is weird they had a spare. They were adding an addition to their house at the time and had bought one and changed their mind).

What we didn't know is that the flange had been busted and the new potty had been leaking for 5 years. We knew the floor was bad but we thought we had time before we had to fix it.

WE WERE WRONG!!!!!

So with the collapse came the immediate upgrade and remodel of the bathroom. We ripped up the floor. (See picture of broken flange). That pink you see is the downstairs bathroom. It is a weird feeling to stand on one floor of your house and stare down into another room from where used to be a floor. I put in new tile. I chose these 16 x 16 in porcelain tiles because I hate doing tile (I get anal about grout lines) so I decided the bigger the tile the less I had to mess with. (See perfect grout lines picture). Yes, those are perfect grout lines.

Next came the new potty. It is dual flush! I discovered that this means it has two different flush levels and forces. The big button for light things and the little blue button for heavy things. We put it in and the darn thing leaked. We tried everything we could think to stop it but ended up just turning the water on/off when we needed it. We also kept plenty of towels around it. We called in a plumber friend of ours and discovered the directions that came with the potty were wrong and after 10 minutes (we struggled with it for 3 weeks) he fixed it!

So here is where we are now. There is a tub/shower in the room with a new floor and potty. Eventually the tub and the tile work in the surround will be replaced but as of yet we are focusing on getting a sink in!

I bought a fabulous frosted glass vessel sink for $56.00 at Floor and Décor Outlets but was unable to find a vanity for it I liked. C doesn't really like having a say in it and since I do all or the majority of the remodel I usually pick and only ask his advice when I am stuck.

I was having a hard time finding the perfect vanity for the vessel sink. I was unsure if I wanted to find a piece of existing furniture and repurpose it or build a new one from scratch. I even looked into a already made vanity but couldn't find anything. In dismay I decided that I would abandon my dream of the bowl sink and just put in a pedestal sink. I found one at Lowe's for $48. I took it home and set it up so I could get a good idea of what it would look like. It was at best okay. It just wasn't what I set my heart on. In the last five years I have come to accept that there are things I would like and love to do but I either can't afford them or it would price us out of our neighborhood. Being an accountant the last option is simply not something I will go for. Did I mention I'm and accountant by day and a weekend remodeler?

On Saturday my niece and I happened to drive past a trailer park where they were having a yard sale. There before my eyes was my vanity. I quickly went home and grabbed C to come look at it. We decided we would not pay more than $40 for it. We measured our space and raced out the door completely leaving the tape measure behind (pretty standard for us). When we got to the Trailer Park it was still there. It was even better up close. It is an antique dresser with three drawers and glass knobs. We bought it and took it home.

Next step repair, reconfigure, and repurpose.

I don't want to give the surprise away just yet. I will post a picture of this precious vanity when I start my new post.

Join me next time with: The Vanity of my dreams … or it will be….