As I mentioned in the previous post, the old vanity was a now non-standard size so I knew I would need to purchase something that would be slightly smaller (less wide) than the little 'alcove' it would sit in. It would also need to be less deep since the old vanity stuck out into the door frame - which had to be cut around the vanity. (I don't know if that makes any sense, but once the old vanity was removed, I had to replace a piece of the door frame since there was a big chunk of the woodwork missing.)
I went to Home Depot--basically, my own personal Cheers during this project--and found a beautiful vanity that was a perfect fit. The color was cognac - a medium-dark brown, a super warm color. It was the right length and width (18" - this will be important later!). It had drawers on the right side and an open cabinet on the left which would be perfect for what I needed to store in the cabinet. I bought a white sink top to go with it and was so excited to bring it home! I got help loading it in my car but when I returned home, I had to haul it in by myself. Challenging, yes, especially since the hatchback on my SUV doesn't stay open when it's cold out so I was trying to pull the vanity out with one hand while holding the tailgate up with the other. Finally got it in the house, into the (tiny) bathroom and was IN LOVE with the color. I went to push the vanity up against the wall...and realized that because of where the plumbing was, the vanity would not work. The cabinet side had an open back but the drawer side had a backing which interfered with the pipes. I thought about using the router attachment on my Dremel to cut away the back but (thankfully before I made a cut) realized it wasn't going to work.
Fighting back tears, I got the vanity back in the box and back in my car (again struggling with the hatch) and made my way back to HD. I returned it without incident and went looking for a vanity that was just cabinet - no drawers - with an entirely open back. No luck at that store so I tried the other HD in town. I found another vanity I really liked but it was 20" deep. I knew from measuring it would physically fit even though it wasn't exactly the size I'd had in mind. So I got help (once again) loading it in my car, once again wrestled it into my house, and once again pushed it into the powder room...only to discover that it was WAY.TOO.BIG. Just 2" bigger than the first one but it may as well have been a foot too big. It was ridiculous. And so this vanity, too, went back.
At this point I was running out of weekend but set off for a neighboring city which has both a Lowe's and a HD. I checked out both places but didn't see anything I loved or that would work given all the resitrictions I now knew I had (no more than 18" deep, 24" wide, with an open back). So I came home and cleaned up as best I could so that my entire downstairs wasn't torn apart for another week.
The next weekend I decided to head north of where I live to try yet another Home Depot. A quick check there revealed no matches. So I headed even further north for another Lowe's--where, at last, I found the perfect vanity! And it was on sale! With a matching mirror! And I got 10% off because the manager felt bad that I had to wait to get help! I was thrilled. I knew I had just the right vanity + sink and couldn't wait to get it home.
As I pushed the vanity into place, I held my breath. Would it really work? YES! I had a winner! Then I unwrapped the granite sink top...only to find that it was cracked right down the middle. I lugged the INCREDIBLY HEAVY top back to Lowe's 40 minutes north of where I live, waited 35 minutes to get a new one and finally returned home and put the new sink top and mirror in place. It looked beautiful!
I had a few more problems hooking the plumbing up, but the rest of the project was a breeze compared to the vanity nigntmare. I replaced the frames in the bathroom and added a couple other things and the bathroom looks fabulous! I'm so proud of it (and don't think anyone but me can really tell that the sink top is not perfectly centered on the vanity).
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