When "I'm done" doesn't mean done.

At about 3pm yesterday Mr. FixIt showed me how much he had got done. It was a lot more than I had realized. All the space above and below the sill was closed off. After the plywood was applied he filled in what was left with cement. The weather was warmer so it was a good day for that project. No more critter fear! And with that he announced that he was done for the day.........

Around 3:30 he declared he was bored. Now, when my children say that I find all kinds of things for them to do but the Mr. is a little different. He finds his own things to do. So he said "Let's get the router out and do the edge of the vanity". Okay!

In a previous post I showed you the dresser we found that we intend to turn into a vanity for the bathroom. It had a perfectly good top on it-well, okay, not totally perfect. Truth be told the wood was a bit warped but we figured we could fix it or get a nice marble top for it. (We had no idea how much that would be.) After some shopping around we decided that the price of the marble top would completely ruin my attempts at trying to keep to a budget on this project. So, we will keep the wood top on the dresser and just fix it.

Scraping off the bad glue.

About three weeks ago we dismantled the top and discovered that whoever had this little jewel-in-the-rough last did it no favors. They tried to fix some things but I don't think they did a very good job. The top and trim had kind of glue on it that reminds of me the paste we used to use as kids; remember the kind that had the paint brush inside it?  I loved that stuff and remember eating as a kid.....I don't know why. (Awkward pause.) Anyway, it had to come off. That is when we discovered that the top had been ruined beyond the point of being useful and I needed to come up with a new solution. We did revisit the marble thing but got the same expensive answer so off we went to buy some oak and a router bit.

Learning from that last owners of the dresser we used three pieces of wood but alternated the growth ring curve (not sure what the technical name for it is) so that the wood does not cup again. The Mr. has a biscuit cutter and so we used biscuits and glue to connect the three pieces together making sure to wipe away any glue that squished out-less sanding in the long run. (Learned that from This Old House.) We allowed that to dry for at least 24 hours then I sanded. I didn't worry too much about the center as it will be cut out to accommodate the new drop in sink.

The beginnings of our new wood top.

I ordered the sink from Home Depot. Two weeks ago Mr. FixIt came home and told me that they had called to say the sink was in and that we could pick it up. ????? I thought I had ordered it to be sent directly to the house but things have been a bit crazy here. Maybe I mixed it up. We got to the store, went to the customer service desk and asked about our sink. The lady there picked up her walkie-talkie thing-y and called for help! Help? "Why do we need help?", I asked. She said that it weighed a ton and was over there (pointing) on the pallet. My husband and I slowly turned toward the pallet and in unison said "There must be a mistake!" I explained that we were there to pick up a drop-in bathroom sink and she replied that the sink that came in as an apron-front kitchen sink. Oh! Oh-no!

We came to pick up this.

We ended up taking home this!

Our kitchen sink was in! Yay! Yikes! What are we going to do with that?! We had ordered it when we ordered the cabinets just assuming that it would be held until the cabinets were delivered. (Checking the paperwork later it indicates that it would come in separately. Lesson learned.) They couldn't hold it so into the back of the SUV it went. Presently, it is sitting in the front room that is our make-shift kitchen. (I will give you a glimpse of that in another post.) The next day our bathroom sink arrived at the house just like I was expecting. We opened the box to make sure that everything was okay and saw the paperwork and template in the box. We closed it back up until we were ready for it.

So fast forward two weeks and here we are staring at the wood top we had glued together and sanded. Mr. FixIt got out his handy-dandy router and our new router bit and there was wood flying everywhere. We were both covered with oak shavings. I love the smell of fresh cut wood. Maybe not so much in my hair, though. Now, it was time to grab the template for the sink. I brought it to the Mr. but when he opened it clearly it was not for our sink. The template had an opening for a sink that was about 23inches wide and 20inches deep. Our top is only 40x20; something was not right.

Obviously, the wrong template for our little sink.

I could have called and had the correct template sent to me but who wants to wait for that? We measured the sink and the amount of space from the edge to the bowl and then transferred those measurements to the wood top. I then used the cardboard surround that protected the bowl in the box, positioning it between my marks and traced around it. It took a couple of attempts shaving a little here and there but we got it and it fits.

Cutting holes for the faucet.

We will work on the drawers once the plumbing goes in to make sure that we do not take too much or too little. This week I will work on matching the stain and sealing it with the Waterlox product that I have read about from other bloggers.



Getting closer to the what it will end up as.

For now I couldn't be happier with the results. And with that the Mr. declared that he was done for the day and this time he really meant it.