After closing, we were excited to start transforming our 1974 dream home on 4+ acres! We instantly began planning our budget, filling pages and pages in various notebooks of how to make our dream home reality. Our original plan included removing the dated wood paneling, ridding the home of all textured paint and ceilings, installing new hardwood, new windows, new siding and a new HVAC system. It wasn't until after demoing most of the first floor that we discovered hidden problems within our new home. The floor joists were wavy, our subfloor did not coincide with our newly purchased hardwood, the crawlspace was in disrepair, the half bathroom floor was soft around the toilet, the list goes on and on... After many Clark Griswold "Christmas Vacation" breakdowns, Chris managed to collect himself and together we vowed to make the most out of our 50 year old investment.

For safety purposes, we now needed to add the half bathroom to our lengthy list of projects. The floor joist spanning underneath the toilet (and across much of the bathroom floor) had been cut out to make room for the waste line. Overtime, the missing floor joist combined with a leaking toilet caused the subfloor to become soft. The previous owners had also built out from the bathroom wall behind the toilet, again making room for their waste line. Chris decided it would be best to re-run all new plumbing and extend the wall back behind the toilet to make the most use out of the small space. Now we needed a design plan.

We wanted our bathroom to have an updated, mid-century modern feel with rustic features/accents. We knew we wanted slate tile floor laid at a diagonal angle, a white subway tile wall complete with a wall mount faucet! In the midst of my design research, I found an amazing concrete sink that I absolutely could NOT live without. Priced at a whopping $1,200, this custom concrete vanity was making all of my bathroom dreams come true! $1,200 was way too much to pay for a simple half bath vanity, so I made it my mission to find a cheaper comparable. Much to my surprise, I could not find anything to match my beautiful concrete top vanity with distressed wooden base. I showed Chris the picture of my dream vanity, hoping he would cave and purchase the high-priced vanity for me out of love... (Yeah, right)

"Keep looking," he said. "We can't afford that." 

Bummer.

Check out the below pictures to see just exactly what we were working with...

As the days passed, I continuously searched for similar vanities but could not find anything that compared. Finally Chris asked to see the picture of my dream vanity again. I quickly pulled out my phone and opened my Pinterest app. 

"We can build this," Chris said confidently.

"Are you serious?  How? When would we have the time? Are you sure?" The questions kept coming. "How would we do it? Do you know someone? Are you crazy?" I simply could not imagine Chris having the time to build a custom half bath vanity on top of everything else he had on his plate. It all seemed a little too far fetched.

The next day, Chris asked me to research concrete sink molds online. I found an amazing Etsy shop owner that had awesome concrete products! We decided to message him about his concrete craftsmanship and our plan for our half bath makeover. His response couldn't have been more perfect. He absolutely loved our design, as well as our creativity in transforming our half bathroom. He and his shop had the perfect concrete vanity for what we were looking for and could have it safely shipped to our home within 4-6 weeks! SOLD! We purchased the concrete top and anxiously awaited its arrival. Knowing concrete top's dimensions, Chris began drawing out the plans for the vanity's base.  Slowly but surely it was all starting to come together...

Sure, we still have baseboards to lay, a door to trim, décor to add and towel accents to install... BUT in looking at our (almost) finished project, Chris and I are jumping for joy! Our half bathroom is now safe, functional and funky! What more could we ask for?

Caroline