When we bought this place 15 years ago, the upstairs bathroom had just been renovated by the previous landlord. But they used the cheapest materials you could possibly use, and I hated the pedestal sink. It worked just fine, but the area next to the faucet, where you would place a soap dish had a pretty steep slope to it.
Every week or two for those 15 years, I'd set down a bottle of contact lens solution and it would fall over the edge of the sink and into the trash can. Or I'd use the liquid hand soap, pumping a little out, and the damn soap would topple over into the trash can. Every time, I'd reach over to retrieve the item and just silently curse the damn sink.
Several years ago, I tried to convince my wife that we should get a sink vanity cabinet with a wide flat area on the top, and she agreed in theory, but we couldn't agree on a color or style.
Recently that all changed. We saw a sink vanity in an Ikea catalog that she thought looked neat because it had drawers, and I loved the flat space on the sink on top. So on our wedding anniversary Thursday, we went to Ikea to check it out. It was pretty cool, so we bought it.
Normally we start projects on a weekend, but we got back home Thursday afternoon, and I proceeded to remove the old pedestal. It was caulked like crazy to the wall, and I had to use a utility knife and thin putty knives to get it loose. I damaged the drywall and pulled up some of the cheap vinyl floor tiles getting it out. No matter, we had a half a box of floor tiles in the attic that they had left for us when we bought the place, and the gouged up wall was going to be hidden by the new vanity, which was a couple inches taller.
We had fun putting the Hemnes Ikea cabinet together. It was a family project and we only made one little mistake that was easy to fix. The Odensvik sink was interesting, because it came with plumbing that allowed space for the drawers in the cabinet underneath. Pretty cool.
The new sink is great. I mean, it's just a sink. But nothing has fallen into the trash can. There's lots of space on top.
Someday, when I'm motivated, I'll get rid of these crappy vinyl tiles and put down a new floor, and I'll put down real base molding instead of the crappy vinyl strip stuff. I still want a new medicine cabinet and lights, and that may very well be next.
Edit: We got the sink almost completely set up on Thursday, but it didn't come with a slip nut and slip nut washer to connect to the wall's rough in drain pipe. So I had to buy that on Friday and hook it up Friday night when I got home from work. And then on Sunday I caulked the sink to the cabinet and to the wall.