A Stroke of Luck...and a New Project

Sometimes things don't go as planned.  When we bought our house, the renovations were only supposed to be three weeks long.  As we came to find out, that was just not going to happen.  Several months later, and we finally got the contracted work finished, yet with a lot more DIY projects on our plate than we had planned for in the beginning.

But then, sometimes a stroke of luck comes along and gives you exactly what you're looking for.

I can safely say that along with my sometimes crippling clumsiness, I have also been cursed with a fair amount of bad luck.  Yesterday, however, proved that even one such as myself can be blessed with a bout of good fortune.  With the start of renovating the main bath, Jared and I had discussed plans for the finished product, however far away that might be.  A dream of mine has always been finding an old claw foot tub for the space, though I never really thought it would be a possible feat.  With all the new renovation shows on HGTV and the DIY Network, claw foot tubs have gained a huge following.  As I found out while I perused the net the last few days, brand new tubs are astronomically priced, and restored antique tubs are pretty much right up there as well.

"Oh well," I thought.  "It was only a small chance."  But then there's always Craigslist.  We found all of our appliances there, why not a claw foot tub?  There weren't too many entries, but there was one reasonably priced, advertising an antique tub in fair condition...in Pembroke.  Jared made contact, and yesterday evening, we checked it out.  Listed for $300.00, the tub was indeed antique, and really quite beautiful, if a little rough around the edges.  The catch?  It needed some refinishing.  So we didn't commit to buying it until we had found some more information on that whole process.

A few calls, some discussion, and a negotiation of price later, Jared and I went right back to the tub man and had ourselves a deal.  Not only did we talk him down 100 bucks, we got a fabulous, if in need of some love, brand new vintage tub!

The outside is clearly in need of a good sanding, but there are no major dents, scratches, or otherwise impossible issues with it.

It didn't take long for Loki to be intrigued by the tub.  The inside is in almost perfect condition, which is incredibly lucky, as that is the most difficult part to get refinished without spending a fortune.  I've been doing a lot of reading online about cleaning up the inside.  There aren't any scratches, and the glaze seems salvageable, so the exterior is really the only issue, as far as condition goes.

When buying antique tubs, it is always a possibility that it will be missing some or all of its feet.  These beauties were all accounted for!

And probably my favorite part.  It has the original faucet!  Not a bit of rust touched the fixture, so I'm considering keeping it up, so long as it works. All in all, a very good find!  I do wish I could tell how old it is, but I think the tub will make a wonderful piece when the bathroom is done.









We're really hoping that we can refinish the exterior without having to take it to an expert.  As long as the interior glazing remains intact, the exterior can easily be done at home, so I'm crossing my fingers that we can do this ourselves.  Even though it was a fabulous steal for the price we paid, Jared and I are on a very strict budget for the bathroom renovation.  In the end, I'm just counting my lucky stars that we found such a great piece, even if it means a little extra elbow grease.

Let's just hope whoever occupies this house after us appreciates the vintage touch as much as Loki seems to!

Motivation Inspiration

Hello there!

I don't know whether it's the slightly warmer spring air, or the fact that our window of time to finish this house is getting smaller, but I've been gearing up for some major changes around this house.  My mom came to visit for two weeks, which was lovely, but it really made me think about all that there is yet to be done on this house.

Luckily, when it comes to motivation, I've got some tricks up my sleeve to get me going.  My choice method is getting some rad tunes going.  Not just any tunes, though.  There's something about the music my mom always put on when it was cleaning day around the house.  So if I need to get my butt motivated to do anything, I invariably put on Ken Medema's album, "Flying Upside Down."  Something about the 80's album lights a fire under me that leads to a clean house, finished project, or at least a started project.

This song in particular helps motivate me, in all it's nostalgic glory.  Of course, when I was younger, I didn't really understand most of the meaning behind the lyrics.  Over the years, however, I have gained a greater understanding of what this song is really about, which motivates me even further.

But I didn't decide to make a new post on just this, oh no.  It's much more than that.  My real purpose for this post is to show the progress that has been made, and all it took was a little motivation.

If you recall (or if you don't), the main bathroom for our house was in need of some work.  That work, however, was not to be done by the contractors, but Jared decided he would take on that project himself.

Before we moved in, this little bathroom was completely functional, though ugly, cramped, and not without a few issues.  When we had the water to the house turned on, we discovered that the bathtub faucet leaked quite a lot, so the lines were capped off with the knowledge that we would have the master bath shower to use.  So despite the non functioning tub/shower, the rest of the bathroom worked fine, and we kept putting off the demo of the room.  Luckily for my mother, we put it off until she had come and gone (you'll see why).

So yesterday, Jared decided to just go for it.  He pulled down the trim around the ceiling first.  At this point, I was nervously standing in the doorway thinking, "Oh jeeze, what are we getting into here???"

I also pointed out to him that it might be a good idea to take out the cabinet, since we plan on keeping it.  That was a pretty easy job, but once gone, the space seemed so much bigger.  If only we could NOT have a sink in there!

Then came the layers.  The tub surround was a preformed vinyl and particle board thingy, which was glued to a sheet of pseudo paneling which was attached to the drywall.  Just like the kitchen floor, the bathroom had layers aplenty, though not nearly as many as the kitchen.

With the layers coming off, it became more apparent that there had been a moisture problem in this bathroom for a very long time.  When the house had no central heat or air,  I can only imagine how stuffy and humid that room got in the summer.  We knew there used to be a window that had long since been covered, but without that, there was absolutely no ventilation in this bathroom.  All that moisture definitely weakened the adhesive of all the layers that had been put on the walls, so Jared didn't have too much trouble pulling them off.

The original drywall is exposed!  One down, two to go.

This wall was a source of worry for us before we started the renovations.  When we discovered the leaky faucets, we assumed that there was a lot of water damage behind the wall, but other than some silly carpentry work, everything was pretty sound.  At this point, I decided to stop hovering with my phone out, so I let Jared do his thing.

And came back to this!  DAYLIGHT IN THE BATHROOM!  I really don't know who the idiot was that decided to cover up this much needed window, but I very much disapprove of their decision (in case you couldn't tell).  However, as excited as I was/am about exposing this window, I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't worried about the wall surrounding it.  Throughout all the other renovations we have done on this old house, we have encountered our fair share of water damage under the windows.  We expected no different from this window, especially because of the visible cracks in the seal on the outside, and the way it leaned in a manner that was not quite right.

Thankfully, the damage was not NEARLY as bad as we had anticipated.  The window needs resetting, and there are a few spots directly underneath the right side that have gotten bad enough to expose the layer of tar that should be between the asbestos siding and the actual wall.  Even with this amount of water damage, most people would be freaked out about what they see here.  For Jared and I?  We've put it in perspective with the rest of the damage to the house, so this is a cake walk...sort of.  Jared is pretty much on his own this time, so it's up to him to figure out how to fix this.

Compared to the rest of the water damage that was found in the house, this is pretty minimal.  All things considered, I'm more excited about having the window opened up than the damage.  Of course, this is only the beginning, and Jared and I have a lot of work to do before this bathroom is going to be functional, but we can do it!  All I need is my Ken Medema blasting on the stereo, and I'm ready to go!

In other news, Jared's been working on getting the front room paint ready.  Other than some sanding, this room is almost there.

Since taking this picture, the rest of the wall has since been given another entire coat of spackle, and just needs a light sanding to be paint ready!  I've been insisting that we get a proper covering on the floor before attempting the sanding process.  We spent an agonizing amount of time waiting for these floors to be redone, I'm not having them ruined again.





So now that spring is here (well maybe not for my family in other parts of the country), I'm ready to get crackin' on this house and make some serious progress.  I'm already dreaming of paint chips and tile colors for the bathroom, premature as it may be...but we'll get there, as long as we keep up the motivation.  With the bathroom in it's current state, it's hard to NOT get motivated by it, so I'm gathering inspiration left and right.  In any case, we've passed the point of no return on it, so it's full steam ahead!