ListWise

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Raising The Bar

No, I haven’t died, and I have been getting some stuff done, just not that much. The bathroom is so close to being finished it’s not even funny. Well, I guess it is a little funny.



I got the door stripped, painted, and hung and it came out really nice. It looks really good, but it also opens and closes really well. The latter is not always a given when I hang a door. This one closes effortlessly. The catch works smoothly and the little deadbolt thingy works smoothly as well. Not too bad for a bunch of 100 year old stuff that was ready for the trash heap.







I had some left over parts for the bathroom and I was able to trade a beautiful matching set of period sink and tub faucets for the items seen above. There is a 1-inch diameter glass towel rod, a robe hook, and a tub mounted soap holder. It was a fair trade and gave me the last remaining little things I needed to make the bathroom more complete.

There are only 2 things left to do and the bathroom will be absolutely finished. I need to put the shelves in the medicine and the get the marble for the corner cabinet.

I stripped the paint off the shelves and sanded them down but now I can’t find them. Over the past few weeks I’ve searched a few times for them and I just can’t find them any where. I’m willing to bet they are in a pile of scrap lumber some place. I’m sure they will turn up in a year or two, but I can’t really wait that long. Tomorrow I’m going to get a few glass shelves made. I was going to make wood ones, but I think with the new glass towel bar, the glass shelves will look nice.



That just leaves the marble for the corner cabinet. I need two pieces, one for the bathroom cabinet and the other for the small cabinet that I still need to build for the little mud room just outside the bathroom. For some reason I’ve gotten it in my head that it’s best to get both pieces of marble cut at the same time. I still need to make the other cabinet though, so it could be a few weeks or months until I can stick a fork in the bathroom and call it done. It’s very close though - Tee-Hee.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! You sure did a beautiful job on this room. Are you for hire?

Anonymous said...

Dear Greg--

Please come live with us. Your power tools are also welcome.

Love,

jm

p.s. It's all gorgeous. And I LOVE the glass towel rod.

Greg said...

Oops! I hope the title of the blog entry doesn’t make me sound arrogant. I was going to write about 2 towel bars I recently bought. There is the one in the bathroom, but I also got a nice old one off Ebay for the kitchen island. Hence the title, “Raising The Bar”. Once I started writing though, I forgot about the one in the kitchen.

PS: Thanks for the nice comments. I loooove the new bathroom.

Katherine said...

I love the way your painted doors come out.

May I ask, what is the precise name for that style door?

Completely off topic, I was looking at an 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue the other day and saw the ordering supplies for plaster. I recollect someone wondering where you got the hair from. Well, you could order it from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. It was called, "hair".

Greg said...

Alicia,

Around here they are called an "Eastlake Door". There are subtle variations, but it is basically a 5 panel door with the extra mill work at the ends of the panels, and the bead detail down the center of the panels.

It seems just about every house built in the 1890s around here had them. Locally they are some times called "Hammond Doors" because a lot of them came out of the big Hammond Mill. Eureka exported thousands of doors at the turn of the century.

That is fascinating about the hair coming from Sears. They really did sell everything at one time, didn't they.

Anonymous said...

it's really beautiful and nice to see another miracle of true recycling with the door. i'm still thinking about the oberon saloon. thanks for keeping us posted and good luck with the painting.

Joel Mielke said...

Congratulations! What a spectacular bathroom!
Hmmm, those floor tiles look familiar.

Greg said...

Hmmm, those floor tiles look familiar.

As seen in an Old Town building near you!

Stick Nymph said...

Hello, just a stranger stopping by after being led here on a google-safari. I love your house and the attention to detail that you put into it. I have an old house myself and it was a nice coffee break for me to peruse all of your restoration adventures studded with Calvin and Hobbes comics. Your bathroom is gorgeous! My favorite is the sink.

Jade of the yellow dollhouse

Greg said...

Jade,

Thanks for the comments. I'm on extended hiatus at the moment, but I hope to start back up again soon.

Greg

Mrs. Limestone said...

This room is really beautiful. Your attention to detail and hard work has really paid off.

Greg said...

Mrs. Limestone,

Thank you. It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the end results.