Murphy strikes

Things have been going smoothly so far as our DIY home improvement goes so I guess it was about time that we started getting disappointed - after all, Mr Murphy is bound to strike sooner or later.

This was what our powder room used to look like, notice the finish on the walls (applied using the sponge technique). All the bath fixtures were bright gold and all this looks so dated. Notice also that the mirror is slightly off center and that the mirror clips are not symmetrical. We planned to address all these for this project.


So we started painting the walls, took off the ugly old fixtures and replaced them with something more modern. This was when we discovered a few things.

(1) that the wall attachment plates that came with these new light sconces did not fit the electric receptacles that were installed. Eventually, we McGyvered our way around that by picking up bits and pieces that we had left over from previous projects and from the scones that we had just removed.

Took 2 hrs to figure out and install the first one and another 20 minutes to install the 2nd one.

These lights look really good when lit.

(2) that the mirror IS stuck to the wall, took off all 4 clips and the mirror stuck to the wall so there was nothing we can do about it (w/o running the risk of breaking it). That mirror is there to stay and short of replacing that, there's no straightening it or fixing its position.

(3) that the walls are NOT smooth at all. In fact, they're pock marked as seen in the picture, this must be why the previous owner painted the wall in that fashion - the textured finish disguised the flaws on the walls.

This portion of the wall in the picture isn't the worst of it, this was just the clearest that came out of the pictures I took.

I have convinced myself that I can live with this because I don't spend a lot of time in *this* bathroom anyway and besides, I can always stare at the new light sconces beside the mirror.

(4) the worst part ? while I was getting ready to replace the toilet tank lever, I heard a distinct *craaaaack* sound and water started gushing out like a waterfall. Check out the hairline fracture that starts off from the gold lever.

I should have emptied the tank before attempting to replace the lever and I should've turned the water supply off.

Let's just say that this did not make my day.

Now, we have to replace the entire toilet tank. Sigh. Hopefully, the fittings are universal and that the colors are generic and easily matched so we wouldn't have to replace the toilet seat as well because replacing the seat might mean replacing the floor tiles altogether. I dread this cascading domino effect.