Windsor Terrace Reno

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January 3, 2008

Flush me down and warm me up: Guest Bathroom checkpoint

This photo may not look very spectacular to you but the view gets Mr Limestone and I misty with pride. Here is why:
1. The air circulating in that room is warm.
2. The toilet flushes.
3. The shower and tub spout dispense water.
4. The aforementioned water goes down the drain without leaks.
5.. Not only does the roof not leak but a beautiful ray of sunshine shines through the skylight.

Ahhh...a thing of beauty.

To refresh your memories, here is what it looked like when we bought the house:

As you may have already been able to surmise, the sink is not yet connected. Thats because we are having it re-enameled. Also missing is the medicine cabinet, light, paint and various hardware. All in due time, all in due time.

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Comments

Looks wonderful! I'm sure your finishing touches will make it extra nice! What did you do with the original tub? Why not restore it?

Posted by: guest at January 3, 2008 10:25 PM

How's the pressure out of the showerhead? And what brand is the showerhead? I was considering one of those larger heads for my bath reno, but was worried about getting enough pressure...

Posted by: guest at January 3, 2008 10:47 PM

Thanks!

Guest 10:25: The original tub is being re-enameled and will live in the parlor bathroom. We considered putting it back in here but a clawfoot tub doesn't make for good showers. With the room already being so tiny, it just wasn't a good use of the space. But down in the parlor where it will be mostly for show and the occassional bath, its a great spot.

Guest 10:47: We haven't taken a shower in there yet. The head isn't THAT large... so I don't think it should be an issue. I think you run into problems when you have a really large rain shower. But Ill report back.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at January 4, 2008 8:48 AM

You guys are doing a fabulous job,great taste too.
Good luck.

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 10:50 AM

Awesome work ! I totally agree on the clawfoot tub not being good for showers. We've got one that is just not worth the hassle. How long has is taken you to get to this stage ?

Posted by: 10thStreetReno at January 4, 2008 1:05 PM

Thanks 10thSt. If you count from when we purchased the house, its been a year. But most of that time was selling our other house and getting the plan + dough together to pull this off. If you count from the time the demo started, its been a solid 4 months straight.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at January 4, 2008 2:20 PM

This looks great. Who is re-enameling the sink? I have been planning to have that done to a tub, and got two quotes for two different processes -- one involving a 3-day drying period and one quicker. Don't know which is better (one is real enamel and the other is something else, maybe?).

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 4:00 PM

wow nice.

Posted by: armchairwarrior at January 4, 2008 5:03 PM

Guest@4: We are going to use someone that was recommended by our contractor. Once we use them, Ill do a post and share our experience. We are recoating both the sink and a claw foot tub.

Armchair: thanks!

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at January 4, 2008 7:27 PM

Looks good. I like the old swag tile. Is there any way to salvage old tile? You see everyone rip it out on the home makeover shows or paint over it. Is it possible to take it off the wall without breaking it so it can be cleaned up and reused?

Posted by: guest at January 4, 2008 10:46 PM

salvaging old tile isn't worth the effort b/c you have to remove the grout. It's hard enough to cut it, let along remove it.

Love the old sink. As for showering in a clawfoot, not ideal, but there are a lot of nice curtain rails you can install, from the classic D shape to an oval track. You can also buy new clawfoot tubs for well under 1k rather than spend 3-400 to recoat it.

Posted by: guest at January 5, 2008 10:47 AM

I am curious as well about the fate of the decorative swag tiles in the 'before' picture. I paid for tile like that.

When we were looking at houses we saw many old bathrooms with these tiles and loved them. We found a handfull of them at Olde Good Things in Scranton and paid five dollars each for ten tiles.

It's a shame that so many of these beautiful old tiles end up in dumpsters, cracked and gone forever. Only tedious and careful work can salvage these antique tiles.

We did a tile job remarkably similar to Mrs. Limestone's. We used the salvaged antique tile we bought to add a decorative element to our shower surround.

I would post the picture in "My Brownstone", but I don't see it anymore. I'll email the picture to Mr.B and hopefully he will post it somewhere appropriate. ;-)

Posted by: Hal at January 6, 2008 11:15 AM

Yes, we did pull off and save as much of the old tile as we could. You can that happen earlier in the blog (Save the Tile!). We couldn't save enough to redo this bathroom with it but we saved it thinking me might put it to good use.

The grout wasn't too hard to get off but some of the mortar wouldn't budge. Therefore of the 3 walls we could save, a lot of it didn't end up clean enough to use on a wall.

I think we may use the subway tile for the backsplash of our kitchen but we have to verify we have enough clean, unbroken pieces to do the whole thing.

We don't really have a use for the swag tile but its quite lovely. Maybe coasters? I suppose we will sell it if we can't use it in the house.

Guest@1047: I realize I can buy a new tub and it would likely be a smarter move than restoring this one. But this one is original to the house and while Im certainly not creating a shrine to the houses history, I'd like to keep this one if possible. We specifically kept a full bathroom on the parlor floor for it to live and since it won't be used everyday, I think the renenameling will do nicely for our purposes.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at January 6, 2008 7:25 PM

For a good accounting of what it takes to restore and reuse old tile, I recommend the bathroom renovation account (taking up most of 2007) at The Petch House houseblog.

http://petchhouse.blogspot.com/

--Eric

Posted by: guest at January 6, 2008 7:57 PM

Mrs. L--its really shipping up nicely. Love the tile in that guest bathroom. Where did you get it?

Posted by: HomeSweetstuy at January 6, 2008 8:08 PM

Thanks Eric. Ive actually been following the Petch House blog for a while and find it really fascinating. However, Im not nearly that dedicated to have old tile in my house. I was primarily concerned with the sentimental value of something original to the house.

HomeSweetStuy: Thanks. All of our tile came from Classic Tile in Bensonhurst. They had the best prices we could find on the marble tile we used so we decided to go with their in stock, no name brand ceramic subway tile as well. It looks fine on the wall and it was pretty cheap so it won out. The floor is unglazed ceramic also from Classic Tile. Again, no name cheap variety.

Posted by: Mrs. Limestone at January 6, 2008 8:40 PM