Yeah, I hear you on the “pick your battles” thing. I’ve got a couple of rentals from the 50s and 60s, and honestly, if I tried to get everything lined up perfectly, I’d lose my mind. Last time I swapped out a vanity, the drain was almost two inches off from where it should’ve been. The wall behind it looked like it’d been patched by someone with a butter knife and a grudge. Ended up sliding the whole vanity over just enough to cover the worst of it, but then the faucet was off-center with the mirror. Tenants never said a word, but every time I walk in there, it bugs me.
I get why folks want things to look “right,” but sometimes you’re just working with what you’ve got. Laser levels are great until you realize nothing in the room is actually level or square to begin with. At that point, you’re just confirming your suspicions and making yourself more frustrated.
I’ve learned to focus on what people actually notice—if the sink works, doesn’t leak, and looks decent at first glance, that’s usually good enough. Most folks aren’t pulling out tape measures or checking if the vanity lines up with the grout lines. If they are... well, they probably shouldn’t be renting from me anyway.
Funny thing is, half the time when I try to “fix” one thing, it throws something else off. You shim one side of a cabinet and suddenly the door won’t close right or there’s a weird gap against the wall. Sometimes you just gotta accept that old houses have their quirks and move on before you end up tearing out half the bathroom for no real reason.
Anyway, glad to know I’m not alone in this battle against crooked walls and mystery plumbing runs.
Man, you nailed it with this:
Laser levels are great until you realize nothing in the room is actually level or square to begin with. At that point, you’re just confirming your suspicions and making yourself more frustrated.
That’s exactly how it goes in my place. I tried to get fancy with a new backsplash last year, and the more I measured, the more I realized the whole wall was waving at me. Ended up just eyeballing it and calling it “character.”
I get what you mean about the little things bugging you even if nobody else notices. Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth trying to fix the stuff that only I see, or if I should just let it go. Have you ever actually gone back and redone something just because it kept bothering you, even though tenants didn’t care? Or do you just learn to live with it after a while?
Yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from. That line—
the more I measured, the more I realized the whole wall was waving at me
—hits home. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles. I’ve definitely ripped out a tile job before because it bugged me every time I walked by, even though no one else noticed. Other times, I just shrug and call it “vintage charm.” Depends on how much it’ll mess with my head day-to-day, honestly. If it’s minor and tenants don’t care, I usually let it go. But if it’s going to drive you nuts, fixing it might be worth the headache.
That “waving wall” feeling is all too real. I’ve had jobs where nothing lined up, and you just have to decide what’s worth obsessing over. Ever tried to center a mirror when the vanity and the light fixture are both off? Sometimes you just gotta pick which one bugs you less. Do you ever find yourself just living with it for a while before deciding if it’s really a problem?
Title: When your bathroom sink ends up off-center
- Been there, and honestly, I just stare at it for a couple weeks to see if it drives me nuts.
- If I can live with it, it stays. If not, out comes the level and I start measuring everything (again).
- Sometimes I’ll just hang the mirror so it’s centered between the two wrong things—call it “intentional asymmetry.”
- Fixing it usually means spending more than I want, so unless it’s totally crooked, I just try to ignore it.
- Eventually, my brain tunes it out... or I find a plant to cover the weird gap.
