Remember the almond toilet that came with our master bathroom (which we recently replaced with a taller, cleaner white model)? For a while the old almond fixture sat in our entryway. Yes, that’s a bit odd, but there was a reason.
We decided to try selling it on Craigslist. When John discovered it was a Kohler worth over $1,300, he figured someone might want a higher-end almond toilet. You’d be surprised what people buy online. A few days later we sold it for $80 to a lovely family—a dad with two boys and a baby girl—who picked it up after work. Oddly satisfying to know our old commode was going to a new home. Clara even waved them off and declared, “I go in car too!” She apparently wanted to come along with the new owners.
Initially we planned to put the $80 toward our new $88 toilet, but then we learned about a local single mother, Chevelle, who’s expecting a new Habitat for Humanity home for her six children. Habitat offered to provide a toilet for her house in exchange for a $100 donation.
We happily donated our $80 plus $20 of our own money to cover the $100 and help Chevelle’s family. Habitat does great work, and it felt right to give the proceeds a second life. Now that the toilet chapter is wrapped up, on to the door trimming project.
You may recall we mentioned that the bottom of our bathroom door needed trimming so it would open fully instead of catching on a floor vent. The door used to grind against the vent and wouldn’t clear even the thinnest bath mats. That left puddles of water outside the tub every day—gross, whether the water is clean or not. Wet socks are the worst.
This week’s update falls into our “Dude, get on that already” category—why did we wait so long?
To fix it we removed the door by taking out the hinge screws—two people are ideal for this so the door doesn’t fall. Then we carried the door out to the patio and set it up on the table saw. John guided the door while I fed it into the blade, trimming a clean strip off the bottom. We removed roughly a quarter- to a half-inch to ensure it clears the vent and any future bath mat.
After cutting, I sanded the bottom edge to smooth any roughness—easier to do while the door was off than after rehanging it. We rehung the door about half an hour later using the same hinge screws.
Success—we cleared the vent and now the door swings freely. We still need to touch up paint along the bottom edge, but it already looks much better.
I also installed a small doorstop on the bottom right edge so the towel hooks on the back won’t slam into the wall art when the door opens.
Here’s the current bathroom to-do list:
paint the walls for contrastreplace the ceiling lightpaint the cream trim whitehang bathroom-friendly artsell the old toilet and replace it with a classic white modeladd privacy to the windowremove the cluttered showerhead caddyremove the door and shave the bottom (and add a doorstop)- finally get a bath mat
- replace the border tile around the room (maybe in phase two)
- move the blue pendant to hang centered in front of the window (phase two)
- replace some of the floor tile to break up the expanse (definitely phase two)
We’re still deciding when to tackle the border tile and the light relocation, and we’ll share a Phase One budget breakdown once we finalize plans. What about you—have you ever sold a secondhand toilet, bought a new one, or trimmed a door?
To follow this bathroom refresh from the beginning, check earlier posts for the planning, painting, light swap, art and trim painting, toilet update, and window frosting and organization steps.