Moviehole-katietreasures: Wooden Bathroom Countertop

I told you about the counter and sink in the upstairs guest bathroom.
The cultured marble sink was just worn out.
At some point very soon after we moved in it got a big chip out of it. It was time for a new sink. We couldn't get the drain attached properly and it was a groovy shell design.
[Dear designers and manufactorers,
Stuff in a faux shell motif very rarely works out well. Please do not purvey these goods to home builders.]
I love shells, but only the ones I collect at the beach.

A new master bathroom is in the works so we didn't want to spend a lot on this project. We estimated a new quartz counter would have been 600-700 dollars. Ouch!
We looked at sinks when we went to the salvage shop.

I also thought about ripping out the vanity and re-purposing a dresser. We just put in new carpet two summers ago so neither of these options was viable. I was not willing to redo the floor. So, the existing vanity had to stay.

I spent several days searching Pinterest for ideas. I was looking for a wood bathroom counter that I'd seen about a year ago. I came across a pin from Cleverly Inspired. The $10 dollar countertop. Here. I wondered if Bill would go for it.
Mr. Bill had been thinking the same thing.

He pulled out the old counter. He used a razor blade to cut all the chalk around the back and side splashes.
This counter was insanely heavy. This was as far as we got trying to get it downstairs. He needed reinforcements.

So heavy!

We headed to Home Depot for supplies. We picked up a sink and faucet and the wood. Our counter was 22 inches deep. I thought we would need any configuration of board sizes that would end up be 22 inches. I felt sure something would have to be ripped to get the depth. It is a good thing Bill was with me because he said we needed two 2x12's. ?

We picked out two of the prettiest boards they had. I didn't want giant knots and they needed to be without any curves.

I asked him why the 2x12's were the right size. He said and I quote, "If you had taken wood shop instead of home ec, you would know." Well smarty pants- I didn't take home ec. I took metal shop, electrical shop, pottery and a slew of others. I missed wood shop and I missed home ec. because I transfered in the middle of the 7th grade. I missed all the electives from 6th grade through the first half of 7th. (I learned how to wire a switch. It has come in handy every time I rewire a lamp ;)

Anyway,
He said that a board is labeled at the saw mill before it's kiln dried and surfaced. It is actually smaller after those processes. I never knew that!

Bill cut the wood to the length of the counter and joined the two boards with a biscuit joiner. Get your own here.
Bill cut out the sink with a jigsaw and we dry fit everything.

The sink came with a pattern so there was no guessing about the size of the sink opening.
He sanded it after 24 hours of dry time.

I stained it with one coat of English Chestnut and one coat of Jacobean both by Minwax. The English Chestnut alone was a little too red.

I let it dry and gave it four coats of Helmsman Spar Urethane in a Satin finish. It is an indoor/outdoor product. I made sure to seal the underside and inside edge of the sink. It should hold up.
I sanded with 220 grit sandpaper in between coats.
The finish on this will be enough to withstand the water it will come into contact with and the total cost of the counter was about $24.00. We had both the stain and the Urethane.
The sink was $60.00 and the faucet was $99.00.
Here is a sneak peak.