Vanities and Viburnums

We’re back

We made it back. Finally. It has been nearly a month since we’ve been up to the house which is entirely too long. I had a large reception desk project that I built and delivered to a marina up in Atlanta. I was working late nights and weekends to make sure I hit the delivery date of the desk. In the end, the desk turned out beautiful and the marina is thrilled. We got to visit with Oceana’s grandparents while we were in Atlanta so that was nice also.

Vanity Build

Before we came up this week, I wanted to build the vanity and vanity top for the new bathroom. As fond as I am of that pedestal sink in there (said with lots of sarcasm), I’m looking forward to replacing it with a proper vanity. The new vanity will be built out of pecky cypress to tie in with the ceiling in the bedroom. It will also bring in some color into the otherwise white bathroom.

Using the new-old saw

The build was pretty straightforward. I finally got a chance to get my new (new to me, but 30 years old) saw dialed in and got a sliding table built for it. This is the saw that I picked up a few weekends ago in Sarasota. This was the first project I built on it with the sliding table. It was awesome. It actually sped up the build process and allowed me to have more accurate results. That’s a win-win. With the vanity built and the finish applied, I started on the Corian. I made a small white Corian vanity top with integral sink and then made a back splash and side splash.

Bye bye pedestal sink

We loaded up the vanity and headed for the lake. It was nice to pull in and see all of the Christmas lights lit up. Sunday morning we got to work. The first thing I did was to get rid of that pedestal sink. With that sink out, I got the vanity installed. I waited on installing the corian top as we didn’t have a faucet yet and I figured it would be easier/cleaner to drill the holes for the faucet outside. With that said, we made a supply run and picked up a few supplies. While at Lowes, we looked at the knock out roses and picked up one to replace the dead one by the kitchen. Then one thing lead to another and we ended up with 6 more knock out roses, 3 of these striking red plants called dragons breath, and a large pot.

Faucets and roses

Back at the house, Oceana started planting the new roses while I messed with the vanity top. I got the holes drilled and then installed the vanity top and back splashes. I then got the faucet hooked up and connected the drains. Easy. And no leaks. I then got the mirror and towel holders installed. It’s starting to look like a bathroom. Oceana dug as many holes as she could for the new roses but a few of the hole locations were full of dying banyan tree roots. I hacked them out with the bush axe and she finished planting the roses. This planter area covers up one of the stumps from the banyan tree. I had cut the stump flush with the ground and that is what the planter pot is setting on. It makes it look nice!

Sweet Viburnums

While Oceana was finishing with the roses out front, I cleared out a bit more of the Brazilian pepper trees along the property line. With those cleared out, I started laying out for the sweet viburnums that we’ll be planting as a hedge along the back of the property line. These type of viburnums are supposed to get to 20′-30′ tall, 10′-15′ wide, and are very dense. They’re also supposed to grow about 2′ per year. They should make a good privacy hedge. Also, they flower in the springtime with sweet smelling white flowers – hence their name.

22 plants planted

We dug, hacked roots, and planted 22 of the plants along the back and side of the property line. With the plants in the ground, we relocated and set up temporary sprinklers to keep them watered. We’re going to be running temporary irrigation to them next weekend but the sprinklers will do for the time being.

Mad as a hornet

During the planting, I was walking past the back of the house and spotted some hornets. So I grabbed some hornet spray and dropped 2 out of 3. #3 flew away and I tried to get it but it disappeared. About 30 seconds later Oceana yells, “It’s right behind you”. I ran like a scared schoolgirl and that’s when Oceana says “it’s on your back!”. The hornet had landed on my shirt and was stinging through my shirt but fortunately my shirt wasn’t tight against my skin. Oceana hosed me and the hornet down with hornet spray and then used my pliers to get it off my shirt. That was exciting!

Baseboard and clean up

Monday morning I got the baseboard installed in the new bathroom. While making the vanity I also made a few pieces of pecky cypress baseboard. These really help finish off the room. With the baseboard done, we started cleaning up outside. We hauled off lots of miscellaneous odds and ends which were just cluttering up the place. Little by little we’re making it nice.

That was all for this weekend. It was good to be back and it was good to catch up with some of the neighbors. We almost missed Tom and Kay but fortunately their new golf cart is easy to spot- it’s bright yellow! As always, thanks for following along.