After church, I armed myself with measurements of the space, the knowledge that I was going to have to cut drywall, and as always, my credit card, and ventured to Lowe’s. Where, from across the aisle of bathroom fixtures, I spied the cabinet of my dreams – sized to go between 16″ studs, bronzish edged, metal box with glass shelves, all for less than $100. After a minor frustration finding an actual boxed one that was the oil-rubbed bronze instead of stainless, I heaved it into my cart (carefully!), and headed to the tool department, where a helpful guy introduced me to my new favorite tool: the drywall saw. This was the way to expand the space in the wall to allow my lovely new cabinet to fit. Best of all, it’s actually a cheap tool despite its massive usefulness.

Once I arrived back home with my shiny new cabinet and drywall saw, I had to make the hole in the wall the same size as the cabinet box. Luckily, this mainly required taking out spacer pieces of drywall that had been around the old cabinet, and then some cutting out of corners with my shiny new drywall saw. After a few tries, I got the space to the right size so the cabinet went in completely, but tightly, and then all I had to do was screw through the holes in the sides out into the studs, so it’s held in by more than its snug fit to the wall.

I had decided before I even moved in to replace the light fixture in the bathroom, since the one that was in there had lost its diffusing shade, and was therefore just two bare bulbs. Also, there is no overhead light in the room, so this one light needs to be bright enough to illuminate the shower, not just the sink area. On an early trip to Lowes (before they started seeing me every day, and sometimes multiple times a day), I failed to find anything I liked, so across I went to Home Depot (can I just note how convenient those two places are to each other? The number of times I’ve been to both in quick succession is astounding – and what one doesn’t have, the other often does). And in Home Depot, what do I see, but a dark brown light fixture that is exactly what I’d been envisioning.  And it cost $10. The lighting fairy smiled on me. So after the medicine cabinet was done, I took the old fixture down (as always, with electrical work, I turned off the breaker to avoid unpleasantness), and put the new one up – simple fixture with basic wiring, nothing complicated at all. Screwed it into the wall, 4 lovely bulbs installed, turned the breaker back on, let there be light! Then it was just another coat of paint around it, and here’s my lovely new medicine cabinet – with bonus new light fixture! Just painting the bottom half of the room left to do, now – maybe this weekend, along with my bedroom (I hope!)