Hark, A Sink!


I know I just did a post on the bathroom, but I've already made one major change. 

As you can tell from the picture above, it's a pretty small bathroom.  Our sink, while pretty, was way too deep for this space. So much so that if one person was brushing their teeth, another person couldn't fit behind them. Since this is our only bathroom it can be an issue. 

So when I got my tax return I decided to splurge a bit and buy a new sink. 
Enter IKEA. 


I purchased the Lillagen Sink for about 180 including faucet. The nice IKEA lady assured me I could do it without any prior plumbing experience. I liked this model, because it's small, and actually gives me a bit of under sink storage, which I really needed.

 

First step was to remove the sink. Here's something the IKEA directions won't tell you. This part is going to be gross. Make sure you have a bunch of old towels to sop up water from the P-Trap, and make sure you've got some paper towels to shove into the P-trap so that your whole house doesn't fill with really disgusting methane. Also cut the caulk around the sink really thoroughly  I didn't cut deep enough on one side and tore through a couple layers of paint. It's just a pain in the butt to fix, save yourself the time. 

Bonus Photo! This is how small were talking. Also, look at me, the lazy homeowner who still hasn't put a flooring transition in for the bathroom flooring. Probably because I just want to tear out the bathroom flooring anyways. 


Now you'll want to build your sink. For the smallest Lilliagen sink, I ended up with double the hardware I actually needed. I think it just saves time packaging to have the same hardware pouch for all the sizes. Still, it made me feel like I did something horribly wrong, but in the end it turned out fine. Don't stress! 


Remember not to let your cat judge you too much during the building process. He gets excited about IKEA boxes, so his judgement should be taken lightly. 


If you have larger moldings  you're gonna have to chisel them out a bit to get the sink to sit flush. I just used a flat head and a hammer. There's probably a more exact and elegant solution to get this done, but we keep it real here at  Lux Per Diem. 


Anchor your sink cabinet into the wall. Fun fact, you probably want to measure and make sure this sink will fit over your water line knobs thingys (technical I know). Mine, probably by sheer will alone, just barely fit. You can see how close I'm cutting it by the right knob. 

Lay some caulk down around the top of your sink cabinet and place the sink on top. You really only have like less than a minute to get that bad boy straight, so do your best. Mine's not perfect, but damn good anyways. 


Follow the IKEA instructions as far as the plumbing goes. This is one of the few times I wish there were written instructions along with the pictograms. Making the IKEA PVC fit onto the PVC in my house involved lots of waterproof thread tape, and brute force. Also since the Faucet is off centered to the left, I need an extension piece (the piece with the tag still attached) to make it actually reach my supply line. After about three trips to Lowes, I actually ended up just bringing the whole faucet and finding the piece that fit the coupling. It might help had I actually asked a sales associate, but this is me when it comes to Lowes.


Learn from my mistakes dear readers. 

This is what I ended up with two days later. 
See the shelf for the cabinet leaning again the toilet? Yeah that bad boy didn't fit at all around my P-trap. I probably did it wrong, but honestly I was so sick of plumbing I wasn't going to take it off. I ended up just tossing it. 
I still need to repaint the walls where the old sink was. 
I need a new litter box because this one doesn't fit with the new sink. 

Just more to add to my to do list I suppose. 

I like this sink much better! It's less deep, and two people can actually fit in the bathroom. I'll get a full room shot once I repaint, but given my track record with timely painting, it might take awhile.

Did you guys have a good weekend? 







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