So far, this is the first. We wanted a floating vanity and I really liked the vessel sink that came with it. (See what I did there? I’m training you on the magic words.) Well, the floating vanity didn’t. It started as the precariously hanging vanity, segued through the barely-held-on-by-plumbing vanity, then ended its life as the propped-up-by-cat-carrier vanity.
But I still liked the vessel sink – and had painted the accent wall to match.
The obvious solution: Menards sells both vanities and vessel sinks; surely they will be able to get us a new vanity with an appropriately cut top.
Yeah. Not so much. Why do so many things in my life turn into sagas?
In any case, we found an inexpensive vanity we liked at Lowes, but it came with a top and sink. Lowes also does custom tops – but does not sell naked bottoms upon which the custom tops can be installed. Do you see where this is going? We ordered both. Restore can never have too many vanity tops, right?
We receive a text that the top is in. We go to Lowes, on Saturday – you know, that day when customers are not at work and can get to the hardware store – and we’re told “it’s in receiving; it will take a while to get it out because Saturdays are crazy.” “OK,” we think to ourselves, we think, “we’ll come back when the bottom is in.” Nice things are said to the clerk and we leave.
The next week, we receive a text that the bottom is in. We go to Lowes, on Saturday – you know, that day when customers are not at work and can get to the hardware store – and we’re told “it’s in receiving; it will take a while to get it out because Saturdays are crazy.” “OK,” we think to ourselves, we think, “we’ll come back next week so they have time to get it out of receiving.” Nice things are said to the clerk and we leave.
The next week, we go to Lowes, this Saturday – you know, that day when customers are not at work and can get to the hardware store – and we’re told “it’s in receiving; it will take a while to get it out because Saturdays are crazy.” “Um, what?!?” I think to myself, I think. I look at The Laird and say, “you deal with getting this out of receiving. I’ll get hooks.”
“Why did we need hooks?” you may be asking yourself. As usual, it is both simple and complicated. Since explaining the complicated version will gratuitously extend a digression in the middle of what, I am sure, is a compelling story, let’s go with the complicated option.
The street to which our driveway is attached is functional, again, finally. Shortly thereafter, we restored the garage to garage status (as opposed to “convenient space to throw anything we don’t want to deal with” status). The Laird’s Jeep is now parked in the garage.
That’s our second Jeep. The first was mine. It was a great vehicle – up to and including the moment it gave its life to save ours. A fun thing that one can do with Jeeps is to remove the doors. They’re bolted on, so it’s not something that can be quickly reversed (unlike the great new hardtops that are T-Tops (sort of) that can be quickly removed and replaced). When the first Jeep gave its life for us, its doors were off. Having had that experience, I feel perfectly safe with the doors off. However, we couldn’t take the doors off until the Jeep was back to being parked in the garage to keep it out of the rain (and hail).
We’re having a bit of a heat wave (over 100F – we’re not in Arizona!). “What better time to take the doors off,” I thought to myself, I thought. So, before going to Lowes, we took the doors off. And leaned them against the wall on the floor of the garage. Hence the need for hooks.
– Digression
As directed, The Laird pulls the (doorless) Jeep into the clearly marked loading zone. After purchasing hooks, I join him. After a short wait, we see a Lowes’ guy heading toward us from very far way with a what-could-be-a-vanity on a hand truck. We team-lift the (what actually was a) vanity into the bed (it’s a Jeep Gladiator – The Laird was most insistent on a four-door pick-up; thank goodness I have some influence or we’d have a dually). There is a second item on the hand truck, but there was no way that it could be a 2′ x 2′ slab of concrete (although I did mention that it is the 21st century and foldable concrete is not out of the question).
We opened the box. Inside was, of course, another box. That one was labeled: “Backsplash”. We sent the poor guy back to scour receiving for the actual second half of our order. We could have moved the Jeep closer to where he had exited the building, but at this point we were not feeling very charitable – and we were in the loading zone, after all.
He found it and returned, grumbling over how it had been in the wrong place – in receiving! This was three weeks after the text that it had arrived. It was strongly implied to us that “in receiving” was a temporary state that made orders difficult to retrieve. This is apparently not the case. Do not allow the “in receiving” order status to sway you! Pick it up, regardless!
After a bit of shuffling to make everything fit nicely in the bed – I will admit that it is a very small bed, especially for a four-door pick-up – we headed home. After the “smashed the breezeway tile to bits going over the rail-road tracks” incident, I was careful crossing the tracks. The concrete top made it home in one piece.
Imagine that you had just bought a vanity-and-sink combo from Lowes. You open the box and find it’s ready to slide in and hook up to plumbing. You’re very happy because the process is so easy. Now, imagine that you are me, who bought the bottom planning to throw away the top. “The [expletives deleted] top is attached to the base,” I said very calmly and reasonably while not bounding up and down.
After a knife, hammer, and prybar adventure – guided by The Laird’s much less expletive laden directions – we successfully removed the top. Hopefully, Restore will not mind a few chips in the edges of their donated sink.
Much to my surprise, the rest of the process went smoothly. The old sink unhooked from both water and sewer easily. The new vanity needed just a bit of clearance added to its second-shelf cutout, but we have one of those vibrating, not-sawzall things. The vanity slid in, the fittings fit and it worked! Granted, some of that is from just my perspective because after enlarging the cutout, I cleaned up the packing material mess we had left in the garage while The Laird finished the installation.
I love how it turned out. I don’t recommend the process.
Marked Up 
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