Married to a Carpenter

This year, as one of our winter projects, we decided to tackle the downstairs bath. We had torn it out when we first moved in three years ago, and it has stood abandoned ever since. This was for a couple of reasons- first, we could never agree on what this bathroom should look like- or should it even be a bathroom? And secondly, with so many other projects on our list, it simply was never high enough on the ladder to warrant tackling it.

And so, for the better part of three years, the door to this room has stood closed. It is directly off the kitchen, and looked more like a back door- a way to a patio of some sort- than a bathroom door, and hence, we were rarely ever asked about the room. But this was the year we were to reclaim this room. Besides the obvious benefits of the extra bathroom, there are other reasons I am excited to have a bathroom on the first floor. First, we garden so much in the summer, that a room to wash up in straight "out of the dirt" will be fantastic. No more muddy footprints through the kitchen, up the stairs, down the hallway. Secondly, as we get set to "train" yet another young boy, I am left thinking of convenience and accessibility.

So, we set out to plan this little project of ours. When we had the layout figured- one that included a shower, toilet, and sink, we started to look at dimensions.

Do you know how difficult it can be to plan those three fixtures in a room with two doors, surrounded on all walls with windows past mid-point, and only 6ft by 6ft? It's...challenging. One of our biggest obstacles was the sizes of sinks. Even if we went with a pedestal sink, we were looking at a 25 inch depth, which we didn't really have room for. After many searches on the Internet, we started thinking outside the box. We came across this picture of an old-time wash stand. I loved it's charm, but knew we needed something with running water. It was on Ebay, and I asked Phil if he could modify it, but he was less than pleased with that idea. But it got us thinking- could we make a sink? So, we set out to do just that. We planned an early morning trip to a number of stores- starting with Target, where we bought this bowl. At Lowes, we picked up this tile hole saw for $13 and some drain parts.

We realized after we were home that we only bought one bowl. If it happened to crack or break, we were sunk. We also only bought one of the hole saws. Again, if it wore out, broke, etc, we would be facing another trip into town. But it went swimmingly. But, if I were to do this again, I would have doubled up on supplies. Once we had the bowl and the drain complete, we discussed what the finished product would look like. And here you can see why one of us is a carpenter, and the other one is clearly not. I drew the top picture, and showed it to Phil, explaining my idea and the parts to it. Then he looked at me quizzically, drew the bottom 4 illustrations, and said "I was thinking more like this." Also, let it be on the record, his drawings took as long as mine. So. Sad.

And then, the neat part comes- where he turns that drawing into furniture!
Here is the finished product- minus the drains and faucets (which will come at the next stage of progress). But, I think it turned out pretty well, and it fits our space!