How to Successfully Upgrade Your Bathroom Counters, Faucets, and Lighting: Week 2 of the One Room Challenge
Oct 10, 2024
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Week 2 of the One Room Challenge has been absolutely packed!!! I chose a paint color for the vanity, supervised the counter demo and installation, replaced faucets and reconnected plumbing, and switched out the light fixtures while also upgrading my switch.
⭐ Installing a Light Fixture ⭐
Counter, Sink, and Faucet Installation
During Week 1, I shared about my trip to a local stone yard to pick out countertop remnants. This week I'll share a bit more about that process.
I found the counters I wanted at Architecture Stones in Rockville, MD. I was shopping for quartz remnants in a true white and found a piece with nice gold/silver veining. All it took was 1 trip there -- I looked at a few pieces, chose the one I liked (confirming it was large enough to accommodate my countertop square footage), did a very minimal amount of paperwork, and even paid the full balance that day. They are priced by square foot, and cost 30-40% less than buying new. The total price for ~15 sq ft, the cutouts, demo, and installation cost about $1500. The same job for new quartz quoted through Lowes.com was about $3000.
The team comes out to measure and template, and makes precise cuts for your sinks and faucets. If plan to replace the sinks and or the faucets, make sure you have them purchased already, or at least picked out, so the template team can consult the measurements from the manufacturer. They remove the old counter (in my case, granite), and if desired (yes, I desire!), they take the old sinks and faucets as well. The only thing you need to do before they come is clear your counters and disconnect your plumbing. They measured 1 business day after my visit, then demo and install occurred 1 week after that. Two bathrooms took about 1.5-2 hours (in addition to my One Room Challenge bathroom, I took the opportunity to do my primary bathroom as well. I'll show you that in a future post!)
The remnant for the hall bathroom was IQ Calacatta Zion.
The morning of the install, I disconnected the sinks and faucet.
That includes:
cold water line
hot water line
drain pipe
The tools you will need:
adjustable wrench (or wrench 1/4" larger than your water line nut; mine is labeled at 3/8", so I needed a 5/8" wrench)
towel in case of spills
Step 1:
Turn off your water at the sink by doing a 1/4 turn to the right for both the hot and cold water lines. This is easily done with your hand. Think of it like turning a clock hand from 12:00 to 3:00. Then test your faucet, turning it on/off to ensure no water is still running through the faucet
Step 2:
Use your adjustable wrench to unscrew the nut between your P-trap (the curvy part that goes into the wall) and your drain pipe (the part connected to the sink.
Step 3:
Use your adjustable wrench or 5/8" wrench to disconnect your water lines. This part will get a bit drippy so here is where a towel is helpful.
That's it!
To see step by step videos of me disconnecting the sink and faucet, check out my Instagram. It is all saved in my Hall Bathroom/ORC Highlight.
Later that day, two installers from Architecture Stones came. To remove the old granite, they scored the caulk in the following areas:
the edge between the counter and the vanity cabinets
the seams between the counter and the backsplash
the seams between the backsplash and the wall
After that, the counter lifts up, sinks, faucets and all.
Next, they cut faucet holes in the new counter. Sometimes this is done at the fabricator, but in this case they cut it at the site to ensure the size of the hole(s) and spacing is correct. For my faucet, the hole needed to be between 1.26 - 1.38" according to the manufacturer. I also needed 3 holes because my faucet was a widespread faucet. You can choose the spacing for the faucet and handles that you like, but most are 6-8" spread (i.e. the measurement between the middle of the hot handle and the middle of the cold handle is 8").
Then they bring the counters in, fit them to the space (remember, it has already been precisely measured), make any small adjustments needed to the backsplash, and then begin installing the sinks.
The sinks for my bathroom are undermount, which means they are attached to the counter from beneath. This is probably the most common type of bathroom sink, but you can also have a pedestal sink, or a vessel sink, which sits on top of the counter. And of course you can have an apron or farmhouse sink, but those are more common in kitchens and laundry rooms.
For undermount sinks, they use adhesive around the lip of the sink, then use a special clamp to squeeze it tight against the underside of the counter. The sink also comes with clips that they then screw in place. In my case, there were 4 because the sink is rectangular.
Finally, the installers apply caulk to all the seams -- all the same seams where they cut during the demo of the old counter, plus caulk around where the sink meets the counter as well.
Then it's my turn to re-connect the plumbing!
Installing a New Widespread Faucet
The instructions to install faucets are usually really easy to follow, so when in doubt, just go step-by-step. But in general, there are a few concepts to know for installing a faucet.
Your faucet should come with 2 water lines, one for hot and one for cold. It also likely has a drain assembly. If not, you can buy one separately, but it's so easy to buy a faucet that includes one. The one I have has a pop-up assembly, which is even easier than the older kind with the plunger.
Because I have a widespread faucet, there is one additional hose that connects the hot and cold to the faucet itself, where the water needs to mix and come out. The only additional supply that I needed, not included in the faucet package, was Plumber's Putty.
Here are the step by step instructions:
Connect your hot water line to the hot water knob
Connect your cold water line to the cold water knob
Place your faucet and your knobs in the counter, and use the provided nut to tighten it in place. Be sure that the knobs are in the correct direction for when you turn them on/off.
Clip the hose in place
Put drain assembly into the drain hole; apply a rope of plumber's putty around the underside of the drain ring and press firmly into the drain hole. Tighten the provided nut.
***I can tell you from personal experience, a hand tighten is not enough! If you are an average sized woman like me, your arm strength will not be enough to prevent leaks. Use your adjustable pliers to tighten it down more. Wipe out excess putty.
Re-Connecting the Plumbing
If the drain and your plumbing remains in line, reconnecting is easy. That is, if you kept your old sink, or replaced it with one of identical dimensions, you just reverse the instructions above. Unfortunately that was not the case for me, so I find myself working on a new puzzle for each sink.
My new drain pipe is about 1.5 inches forward from the previous, so I need to essentially extend the P-trap assembly out just a tiny bit more from the wall. I'm sure there are several ways to do this, but for this first sink I elected to just add a couple inches of new PVC pipe to the plumbing that goes into the wall. The PVC pipe size is 1.5" diameter, so I bought a 2' length of that, a 1.5" coupler, and cut the pipe down to size on my miter saw. I need only about 2.5" of extra pipe.
To secure PVC to PVC, you use PVC primer and cement. Follow the instructions on the package, but basically you apply the primer, then the cement to the section of the PVC that will be attached to the other PVC. You insert it and give it a quarter turn and hold in place for about a minute for it to cure.
When connecting the drain pipe to the P trap, in a bathroom you will most likely need a piece that reduces the size of your pipe from 1 1/2" (normal P-trip) to the size of the drain pipe, 1 1/4". Thankfully mine is already in place, which you can see in the picture above on the left. I'll just use the same nut from before to tighten this down with a bit of plumber's tape.
Now, turn your water back on and test out your faucet! Have a towel handy because there may be leaks! If so, assess where the leak is coming from and make adjustments accordingly. This may just mean tightening things down a bit more, or sometimes when screwing on plumbing, if the threads aren't perfectly in line, it won't get a tight seal. You may need to unscrew and screw back on securely.
You did it! Now enjoy your new sink!
Installing a New Light Fixture
Let's move onto electric. Like plumbing, electric seems VERY intimidating, but in fact is based on some basic rules and concepts. Once you understand the concepts, you can figure out a lot. Of course I do not know nearly as much as an electrician, and I certainly don't know all the codes, but when it comes to swapping out a light fixture, it's elementary.
Here are some things to consider before you get started:
Is this the only light controlled by your switch? In my case there are two light fixtures controlled by 1 switch
When was your house built, or when was it last renovated? This will determine the type of electricity that is installed in your house.
A couple of tools you may need:
Over the decades since electricity has become standard in housing, there has been knob and tube, aluminum, cloth/fabric wiring, and BX wiring. At current state in the US, Romex is standard. This is the typical looking sheathed wire you may be imagining.
My house was built in 1957, but there have been renovations in some parts of the house. Therefore, we have a mix of cloth wires, BX, and Romex. No matter what type you have, you can still DIY a new light fixture.
Knob & Tube
Aluminum
Cloth
This picture actually shows cloth wiring inside BX cable, which is what I see in the older parts of my house
BX
Romex
Every light box should have at least 1 hot wire, at least 1 neutral wire, and a means of grounding. Hot = black, neutral = white, and copper = ground. Super easy when it's Romex, right??
Well with the cloth wires, they're all sort of blackish-whitish LOL. So you can't always tell which is hot and which is neutral. And if you have BX cable, there is no copper ground wire, but instead the system is grounded with the armored cable. Don't mess with that -- I learned that the hard way. But that's ok, you will still be able to attach the copper ground wire from your new fixture!
Any time you are working with electric, and ESPECIALLY if you have older wiring systems like mine, please please use one of these simple testers. They will tell you which wire is hot, and more importantly, it is a way to confirm there is no power coming into your wires before you touch them. Because you turned off your breaker, right??
Sometimes when you disconnect the old fixture and look into the light box, you'll see more than just 1 hot/1 neutral. Sometimes there are 2 hots and 2 neutrals bundled together. These extra wires are called travelers and this may be because the power is "traveling" from another light box that is controlled by one switch. This was the case in my hall bathroom. One switch controls 2 vanity lights. The first light contains the travelers, whereas the second light just has the 1 hot/1 neutral set up.
Now for your step by step:
Turn off your breaker. You can confirm your breaker is off by flipping the light switch off/on and as long as the light does not turn off, your power is shut off
Unscrew your fixture. A lot of fixtures have little hand-screwed bolts that are easy to undo; this will remove the plate of the fixture and you will then see bracket and the wiring should be visible, but tucked into the light box
If you want to confirm the power is off at the wires, or perhaps you are working with an outlet and not a light fixture, use your tester to confirm! It may beep once in a while if metal is near, but when there is actual electricity surging, it will beep repeatedly and flash red (see above video).
Remove all of the tucked wires so you can see an access them easily
I like the spend the first few minutes orienting myself to how things are connected before I start disconnecting the old wire. What kind of wiring is in the light box? Are there traveler wires? Does anything look funky or different than I expected?
Once you feel comfortable with what you are working with, you can disconnect the old fixture by removing the wire nuts (just lefty loosey) and untwisting the light fixture wires from the wires in the light box. You can also just cut them off if you want.
You will also (most likely) want to remove the bracket from your old light fixture; your new fixture probably has one. This just unscrews from the light box. New light boxes are usually bright blue plastic. Older ones are usually stainless steel/metal.
Follow the instructions on your new light fixture, but it will probably next advise you to attach the light bracket to the light box -- again, just using screws. Very simple!
Now you'll take your new fixture, orient yourself to where the hot and neutral wires are. Sometimes they are labeled "L" for live and "N" for neutral. Hot = black = live = L. Neutral = white = N. My new fixture actually had 3 of each because it has 3 lamps/bulbs. All the "L" bundled together and all the "N" bundled together. The new fixture will also have a copper ground wire.
Start attaching your wires:
The copper ground wire gets wrapped around the tiny green screw that is likely on the metal light bracket. Wrap it and tighten down the screw. If there is no tiny green screw (there may not be one if your fixture is vintage!), then just wrap the copper ground wire to any part of the metal bracket.
Wrap the hot wire(s) in the fixture to the hot wire(s) in the light box. They should be wrapped clockwise. Use a wire nut (usually provided with your fixture) and twist that down, righty tighty, on the bundle all the way until it is very tight. You should be able to pull on the wires and they should not slip out of the nut.
Wrap the neutral wire(s) in the fixture to the neutral wire(s) in the light box, just like you did in step 10b.
Check to make sure all of your connections are secure; before tucking all your wires back in the box, you may want to test to make sure it is working. Make sure you have a light bulb installed, turn on your breaker, and turn on your light switch on/off a couple of times to make sure you are good!
Once you confirmed the light is working, turn off the breaker once more, tuck your wires, and then install the light fixture plate/cover.
You just installed your own light fixture! Do you think I chose the green glass of the gold fluted? See here.
Because the first vanity light was a bit more complex with the traveler wires, I actually used Wagos instead of wire nuts. Wire nuts are made to accommodate a certain number of wires, and I was going to have 5 wires in one connection (one hot, one hot traveler, and one for each light bulb in my fixture). The wire nuts provided with my fixture were not big enough, and I had some Wagos leftover from a prior project so I used one that could accommodate 5. I like these a lot, in part because you do not have to do any twisting, and they are small and discrete and don't overcrowd your electric box.
Upgrading Your Switch to a Smart Dimmer
Now that you are an amazing professional electrician (JK!!), you may decide to change out your switch to a smart switch, a dimmer switch, or maybe you just want a nicer, fancier looking switch! Do it! The concepts are the same.
In my house I use Kasa Wifi Smart Switches and plugs. I love being able to control them from my phone and set timers. When possible, I like to use their dimmer switches.
When you are buying a switch, consider the following:
Do I want a dimmer or not?
Is this the only switch that controls this light, or are there 2 switches that control the light (often the case in larger rooms with multiple doorways, or at top/bottom of stairs)? One switch to one light is called single pole. Two switches to one light is called 3-way. The wiring is slightly different so make sure you buy the correct one.
For my bathroom reno, it is a single pole switch, and I just happened to have a leftover single-pole dimmer switch from a prior room! In order for these Kasa switches to work, you also need a neutral wire in the switch box. Some of the switch boxes in my house do not have a neutral bundle, so I have not been able to use them everywhere. But I was lucky this time, and there was a neutral bundle in this switch, so I went ahead and installed the new switch.
When you use a Kasa switch, the app will take you through the entire installation, including wiring the new switch. Honestly, that is a big part of how I learned to do this! But again, it all comes down to the same concepts, so let's go over those basics.
Every light switch has a hot wire and a neutral wire, but they aren't called that...they are called Line and Load. The Line wire is the wire that brings electricity to the switch. The Load wire is the wire that takes the electricity from the switch to the light fixture (the hot wire you just attached to your fixture!)
So when you have opened up your switch and the breaker is ON, there will be a wire that responds HOT to your electric meter. That is your LINE. With Romex, this is the black wire, just like before. The other will not respond, because that is your LOAD, and it will not be "hot" until you actually hook it up to your switch and turn on your switch. With Romex, this is the white wire, just like before. Turning on the switch allows the electricity to run through the switch to the light. Turning off the switch cuts that connection.
Every switch has a screw or place to put the line and load wires, and sometimes they are labeled as such, but for the most basic of switches you just go by color. The gold screw is for your line/hot/black wire and the silver screw is for your load/neutral/white wire. And of course, where would we be without the copper ground wire. On the switch, that is often green and can once again be connected to any metal piece in the switch box; or in some cases it is not needed, you can just cut it and cap it (in my old BX switch boxes, I do not need to connect the copper ground wire because the BX sheathing grounds the switch).
Kasa switches have screws that are conveniently labeled as LINE and LOAD. They also come with a white neutral wire that you will attach to the bundle of neutral wires tucked into your switch box, this is how the switch itself is powered.
Step by step, for any switch:
Turn off the power at the breaker
Remove the switch plate
Use the meter to ensure power is off
Unscrew the switch
Remove the LINE and LOAD wires from your old switch. Make note of which is the LINE - it would have been attached to the gold screw; the LOAD attached to the silver screw.
Attach them in the same way to your new switch
Turn the power on at the breaker and test your switch; if there is a dimmer, you may want to set bottom of the dimmer at this point
Once you confirm it is working, screw the switch back into the switch box, and replace the cover plate
Now your bathroom is so fancy with a new Wi-Fi dimmer switch! Don't forget to make sure your bulbs are dimmable!
One final step for this week was to repeat the same switch-replacement process above for the fan switch. I purchased a humidity sensing switch so that the fan would turn on/off on it's own when needed.
That is a wrap on Week 2 of the One Room Challenge. A huge hodge-podge of activities but we made some major progress! Next week I'll start painting. If you want to see a sneak peak of the color I chose, head over to my TikTok or Instagram!
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