It wasn’t a terrible-looking bathroom, other than the bathtub that picks up color from the pipes and needs refinishing and a radiator that collected dust and anything that dropped down that narrow space between the vanity and the wall. But the sink drain periodically had issues, backing up soon after we cleared it. We hired a plumber, who disassembled the bits under the sink to clear it out with a “router” or drain cleaning machine (not to be confused with the router connected to your modem or the style used for woodcraft) and found that someone else had done that previously and left a broken metal rod in the pipe. Seriously, hearing the plumber exclaim “What the… ?” is never a good sign.
The plumber put in a good effort, but ultimately said that he couldn’t get the rod out. The vanity would need to come out – outside of his scope of work – and in a worst case scenario, the pipe might have to be cut to get it out. I’m relieved to say that the handyman we hired did not have to cut the pipe to get this well-corroded chunk of metal out of the pipe. He did have to remove the vanity, and it seemed like a reasonable time to update that portion of the bathroom.
The old vanity was 25 inches wide; removing the unused radiator from the floor gave us an additional 4 inches to play with on that side, so we updated to a 30-inch vanity with a 31-inch top. (We were told by multiple people that we could go as wide as 32 inches without interfering with the toilet, but 30 appears to be a standard size). In addition to the vanity, the medicine cabinet is significantly larger than the old one, the light fixture updated, and the walls are a lovely shade of blue. I keep poking my head into the bathroom just to smile at the overall effect of the change.