Replacing the Bathroom Sink- Part 2

As I mentioned previously, we decided to put down a vinyl floor in our bathroom.  I wanted to tell anyone reading this that we know this is not particularly farmhouse-y or really classic, but allow me to explain.  Eventually, Lynne and I want to rip out this half-bathroom (again) and tear down the wall into the study to expand into a full bath.  (Long term, the study could become a guest bedroom or even a bedroom for us when we’re old and senile.)  So the goal here was to make this half-bathroom good to go for the short-term (next 5-ish years).

Once the tile floor was ripped out (see Replacing the Bathroom Sink- Part 1), we took down the wallpaper on the upper half of the walls and painted them (because who cares if we spill some vinegar solution or paint on the subfloor).  I’ll spare you the agony of describing that but just know it was painstaking and we’re thankful that it’s over!

For the paint we chose Sag Harbour Gray by Benjamin Moore.  It doesn’t match the colors we have going on in the kitchen but Lynne doesn’t seem to mind because it’s such a separate space.

After painting, we made a trip to Lowe’s and picked out the vinyl floor I previously mentioned because it looked great and was really cheap (less than $1 a foot)!  We also liked that it was so easy to install (only equipment needed is scissors) and to rip out… no glue = no headache later.

Rather than cut out a piece of vinyl and trim it until it fit perfectly, we decided to take contractor paper and make a template.

It was pretty easy to do: first we taped two pieces of paper together so it would definitely be bigger than the bathroom footprint.  Then we placed the paper on the floor of the bathroom and took a pen to trace the footprint, taking care to denote where the pipes were and toilet would be.

It got a little tricky around the pipes because the contractor paper has to be flat to get an accurate line, so we simply cut the paper from the nearest edge to the pipes (and any other item which may be in your way).

Here’s what the template looked like while still in the bathroom when we finished tracing the border:

Next, we cut the paper so that it matched our traced footprint.

We then placed the template over the vinyl floor and drew the footprint on the vinyl.  We gave ourselves about an inch extra all around because it’s easier to cut off more than “un-cut” a mistake.

With our sketched footprint of the bathroom marked on the vinyl, we were ready to simply cut out our new bathroom floor!

It was kind of crazy to be holding our floor in one piece, but whatever works works, right??

At this point, the “installation” if you will was pretty easy.  We placed the vinyl on the floor and just like we did with the contractor paper…

we held the center of the floor stationary (by standing on it) and pressed down around the edges…

and trimmed the excess with a razor knife.

Just a friendly reminder that you can always cut off more, but you can’t “undo” a cut that’s too big 🙂

Then, just like we cut the contractor paper to get it flat around the pipes, we just a line from the nearest edge of the vinyl to the pipe and cut a small circle out so the floor laid nice and flat.

No problem!  The sink and toilet drains were pretty easy to cut out too, but, being the always-cautious type, I took my time cutting the hole for the toilet because 1) it’s so big and 2) it was hard to tell where to cut.  It actually took me four different cuts to get the right sized hole, but hey, better that than cutting it way too big!

Cut 1:

Cut 2:

Cut 3:

Cut 4:

I hate doing rework!  Can you tell?!

Thanks to my extremely-cautious approach (I wanted it to look good 😀 ), I only had time to install the toilet again before it was time to stop for the day.  So as a quick recap, a simple sink replacement will now take 3 separate days! That’s just how things can go sometimes…