Remember the almond-colored toilet that used to be in our master bathroom, which we recently replaced with a taller, cleaner white model? For a while the old almond commode sat in our entryway looking a little out of place. People often ask if that’s weird — yes, it was a little strange, but it had a purpose.
John discovered that the toilet was an upscale Kohler model that originally cost over $1,300, so we decided to try Craigslist. You’d be surprised what people buy there, and within a few days a lovely family — a dad with two young boys and a baby girl — came by after work and bought it for $80. It felt oddly satisfying to send our old throne to a household that would appreciate it. When they left, our daughter Clara waved at them through the window and announced she wanted to go with them too, which made the whole moment even sweeter and more memorable.
At first we thought of the $80 as a small discount on our new $88 toilet, but then we heard about a local family that Habitat for Humanity was helping: a single mother named Chevelle with six children. Habitat was arranging a new home for them and a $100 donation would buy a toilet for that house. We decided to combine our $80 Craigslist proceeds with twenty dollars of our own to cover the donation and make sure Chevelle’s family would have a proper fixture in their new home. Habitat for Humanity is a wonderful organization, and supporting local families felt like the right thing to do.
With that settled, we moved onto a long-neglected bathroom nuisance: the door that wouldn’t open fully because it rubbed against a floor vent. This problem prevented us from using even the thinnest bath mats — the door would catch and bunch them up, which left wet puddles outside the tub. Even if they were just bathwater puddles, stepping into the bathroom with wet feet or socks is unpleasant, so we put trimming the door at the top of the to-do list.
We finally tackled it this week. Removing and trimming a door turned out to be straightforward. We took the door off by unscrewing the hinges — two people made it easy and safe to lower it without it slamming. Then we carried the door out to the patio and set up a table saw. John guided the door against the fence while I fed it steadily into the blade to remove a small amount from the bottom, aiming for a clean, even cut. Update: a reader later suggested an even safer method for cutting doors; safety is always the priority when using power tools.
We trimmed off roughly a third to a half an inch to ensure the door would clear both the vent and the bath mat we planned to add. After cutting, I sanded the freshly cut edge to remove any roughness and prepare it for paint touch-ups; once the door is back on the hinges, it’s much harder to sand that lower edge.
About a half-hour later we rehung the door using the original hinge screws. It now swings freely over the vent and will allow room for a bath mat without dragging or catching. I still have to touch up the paint along the bottom edge, but overall it looks much better and functions as intended.
To prevent the towel hooks on the back of the door from slamming into the artwork on the wall, I added a doorstop to the bottom right edge. That little detail keeps the art safe and keeps the door’s range of motion in check.
Here’s the current bathroom to-do list, with completed items crossed out:
paint the walls so they have some contrastreplace the boob lightpaint the cream trim whitehang some bathroom-friendly artcraigslist the toilet and replace it with a classic white onedo something to add privacy to the windownix the ugly and cluttered showerhead caddyremove the door so we can shave the bottom (and add a door stopper so it doesn’t squash the art)- finally get a bath mat
- replace the border tile around the room (maybe in phase 2?)
- move the blue pendant light to hang centered in front of the window (phase 2?)
- replace the floor tile down, just to break things up since there’s so much of it (definitely phase 2)
We’re still deciding when we’ll tackle the bigger projects like replacing the border tile and re-centering the pendant light. If those get scheduled into Phase Two, we’ll share a full budget breakdown of Phase One once it’s all wrapped up. But for now, the vent is cleared, the door works properly, and the bathroom is a little more livable.
What about you? Have you ever sold a used toilet, donated a fixture to help a family in need, or trimmed a door to solve a clearance problem? We’d love to hear your tips and experiences.
Psst—if you want the full story of this bathroom refresh from the beginning, we’ve documented the planning, painting, light swaps, trim touch-ups, toilet update, and window privacy tweaks along the way.