Vanity dramas and the power of assertiveness

Suddenly months after signing off on our vanity cabinet design we were having a massive issue with our ensuite vanity.

I’m up to the stress and anxiety and tears stage of the build.

This whole cabinetry business has been… Bull rubbish.

Do you remember how they had not included a big enough allowance for the cabinetry required in the quote?
That was upsetting enough because we ended up agreeing to pay WAY more than we ever wanted for the vanity just to get it nice?

The design we agreed to was this:

The cabinet company messaged me this…

Ensuite Vanity

The drawers width decreased to 450mm wide. The basins are not centered to the door panels as the basins requires at least 50mm from edge.

I was very disappointed because I think that won’t look nice. I like everything to been even. I’m confessing right now I’m pretty OCD that way.

I put on my big girl pants and asked for a new design which was even. They came back with these options. But look at how much less bench space there is!

Plus… Practically… How do you open the drawer and use the sink? Especially with two people using it.

I was very upset. This is the email I sent our customer service representative. It shows my level of frustration and disappointment.

I really hope you’re good at fixing problems because I’m having lots of trouble with the ensuite vanity.

The original drawing we agreed to is a 1700 vanity in 3 even sections with the drawers to the middle.

However the new measurement is somehow different at 1600. I don’t know why, but now the sinks don’t fit in evenly as planned and I’m finding it very upsetting that the whole vanity we planned is now somehow not able to happen as planned.

The original plan left a gap of 544mm between the bowls… Yet now the gap is 221mm which means available bench space end up less than our current project vanity in our house. It seems crazy that building a new house I end up with a bigger vanity but less space.

I just can not understand why the original design isn’t able to be made as agreed.

I would like you to work out how this can be fixed as it’s causing me lots of stress and tears. Is it that the basin was incorrect? Is it that it needs a different basin?

I don’t know, I just want the vanity we agreed to.

Can you please try and work this out and fix it.

To her credit she got onto it immediately and was in touch with the kitchen designer to work out a solution.

I’d turned up onsite to show Miss Bee the progress outside while I was chatting with the earth mover guy our Site supervisor appeared. Perfect timing! He was there to confirm the measurements for the vanity. I showed him the basins and the suggested design and we agreed it would work.

The solution is choosing new smaller basins. Of course at an additional cost… OF COURSE! yet another variation.

We’re going to use this basin now instead of the lower one in both theb ensuite vanity and main bathroom vanity so they match.

I do like the new basin. I like the design but also that it has an overflow.

Caroma Track inset basin.

The new design is very similar to the original. But sits up more like a bowl.

This is the new (old!) vanity with the new basins.

The only very minor tweak is out will sit ever so slightly off centre (5cm instead of 3.35cm) so I can easily clean the gap between the basin and the wall (part of our accessible home goal).