Bathroom: Before, In-between & After

There is not much to the before. It is just a couple of pictures of the room from different angles. It is a small room and tough to get pictures of it.



In the photo above, that is the bathroom at the far end, beyond the water heater. This shot is taken from the dining room, looking through the butler’s pantry, and in to the scullery. The scullery is what eventually became the bathroom. As I’ve stated many times, these three rooms went through the earliest of modifications when they became Mrs. Petch’s apartment in 1915 when she turned the house in to a boarding house. The dining room and butler’s pantry were originally separated by cabinets, and that was a solid wall between the butler’s pantry and scullery.

The two big windows were removed and the small stained glass window is now centered on that wall. You can see the tub in the picture as well. That was going to be the original location of the tub. I ended up flipping it 90 degrees and it is on the wall to the left, out of the picture. There is now a solid wall were the water heater is. The medicine cabinet is on the other side of the water heater with the toilet next to it. The door to the bathroom is on the right, just out of the picture.



Here is another shot of those two big windows. While they are original to the house, this was not their original location. I won’t go in to how know, but it was very obvious.



And here is the same shot with the stained glass window. Below are three videos. The first, a tour of the room just after the rough in plumbing was finished. Then a very short video after the tile was up but not yet grouted. And finally, a video I shot three days ago of the finished room.

A note on You Tube Videos: They basically suck. Its like you get 10 pixels that smoosh together. It seems to me that the videos play better when you reduce the size. Changing the width & height parameters dosen't seem to do much. I did notice that if you click on the "Menu" button on the You Tube window the video will get smaller. To keep it that size, hover the mouse pointer over the "Other Video" images at the bottom of the You Tube window. It seems to play better for me that way.

Two Weekends, Two Doors

Doors really take a lot of time. Last weekend I put a new front door on one of the rental units. If you include the time it took to purchase the door and paint it, the whole thing took me 5 or 6 hours. Granted, I’m not the speediest worker in the world, but doors are a lot of work. You must mortise hinges and install locksets, and of course they never fit perfectly the first time. There is always some trimming or shimming that needs to be done. It didn’t help matters that the apartment was on the second floor.

This weekend I turned my door hanging attention back to the bathroom. I’ve been working on this door for a good 3 or 4 weeks now. The door was in reasonably good shape, given its age, but it still had some issues. The main issue was the paint. It had to all come off. There was a lot of it and it was chipping pretty bad. I’m really not in to the whole shabby chic thing.



The only other issue with it was one of the panels was cracked. It was right along the edge and it was a pretty clean break so I filled it with some poly urethane caulk. The wood on the panels gets very thin where it meets the rails and styles of the door. There really wasn’t much to glue. Plus, it would have been hard to get the glue in there and get it to stay while it set.

Once I got all of the pant off it came time to hang it. Naturally, the old hinge mortises on the door did not match up with the old hinge mortises on the door jamb I reused. Not that I expected them too, but one can hope. It’s probably just as well, because no doubt the screw holes would have been stripped.

And of course, things did not quite match up. This is a 100+ year old door being hung in an 80+ year old door jamb that was reused and installed by an armature carpenter. I really never expected the door to fit on the first try and it didn’t. It wasn’t too bad. A few minor trims later and the door was swinging effortlessly on its reproduction steeple tipped hinges.



I decided to get classy with the door knobs considering the bathroom came out so classy. I’m not sure where I got these. They probably came on one of the doors I bought some place. You can see the image of the old face plate. I’m not sure if that big oval style pre-dates my house or if it came later.



I also added a little deadbolt type lock. This was an Ebay purchase. Next will be to remove all of the hardware, take the door off the hinges, and paint it. I want to clean the door knobs and face plates as well. It probably won’t be until Wednesday or so when I get it back up, but this puts me one giant step closer to finishing the bathroom.

Moderate Improvements

I was able to get a few things done on the bathroom. I bought an antique heater grate off Ebay, which I’m using it as a cover for the bathroom exhaust fan. The plastic Nutone cover that came with the fan seemed a tad out of place with all of the marble and tile. The grate was in really good shape so I just had to clean it with steel wool and paint it.

This is centered over the sink.


Tail Piece Before


Tail Piece After


I also got the new tail piece for the sink drain. It looks much, much better than the pieced together one I had on there originally. It was an extra $35 or so, but it is a huge improvement on the look of the bathroom. I also needed to repair a small leak on the cold water supply line for the tub, but with that, I am officially finished with the plumbing. Everything is now hooked up and not leaking. I’m so glad that’s over.

I managed to get all of the paint stripped off the door, but then I had to turn my attention to landlord duties so nothing has changed with that for a week now. I had one tenant move out last week and another one moves in on Monday. The door still needs to be sanded and painted, and then I can hang it.

Once the door is up, the bathroom will be functional but it stills needs a few things before it’s practical to use on a daily basis. I need a towel bar and a few hooks for bath towels. I need shelves for the medicine cabinet. I also need some place for soap in the shower. The shampoo and what not can go in the window sill, but I don’t want a soap dish there. So I need something that will hang on the side of the tub like I have in the upstairs bathroom.

After all of that, I just need the marble on the corner cabinet and I can officially say the bathroom is done!

My First Shower In 5 Years

And It Works!

I got my hair-brained shower scheme all hooked up today and took my first shower in 5 years. Eh….it was ok. I’ve gotten so accustomed to lounging in my canoe of a tub that it felt rather odd to stand up in a shower. Plus, I don’t care for the shower head. It was a wide spray of very fine streams of water. I felt like I had to move around just to get wet. I also mounted the shower head kind of high. I’m either going to lower it, or get a new shower head, or both.

Anyway, here’s a few shots, one with the curtain open and one with it closed.





I ran down to Target after I got the shower working and bought a shower curtain, rod, rings, bath mat, and waste basket. It came to $88. Choke! I was a little surprised it would be that much. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I bought a cloth shower curtain. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing, but at least it doesn’t have that smell of fresh vinyl that seems to permeate half the house when you buy a plastic one.

I took a 15 minute shower and didn’t try and control where I splashed at all. The shower curtain did a very good job of containing the water. Really, I would say 90% of the water went down the tub drain. Afterwards there was no standing water under the tub and NO water outside the shower area. I honestly don’t even think I needed to put the quarter round tile on the floor now.

The shower curtain never billowed away from the force of the splash. In fact, the outer sides of the tub didn't get wet at all, and neither did the supply lines or drain. Really, anything that went over the side hit the tile or curtain and slowly drained to the floor. The tub feet didn’t even get wet.



Above is after the shower. You can see that the cloth curtain got very wet in the center. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to have a liner, or what. I’ve never had a cloth shower curtain before.



Here are the pipes after the shower. So little water went over the front that it didn’t even wash away the small pile of tile and saw dust that collected there when I drilled the holes for the shower riser mount. You can see there is water on the tile, but the pipes are dry as a bone.

So far I’m going to say this is a resounding success. The only thing left to do is go under the house and make sure the shower pan doesn’t leak. However, I vowed not to go under the house for 12 months, so that will have to wait.

Next up, the door. It’s about 90% stripped of paint. I still need to sand it and paint it, and then I can hang it. The end is in sight.

No Surprise, I Guess

I had a small leak in the drain assembly on the bathroom vanity. It was at a factory joint, but it turned out to be my fault. I thought it was a soldered joint. It was right where the tail piece met the underside of the drain. I didn’t realize this was a threaded tail piece that screwed up in to the drain.

I called DEA Bath and got Jim (Tim is no longer there). He explained that the I was supposed to remove the tail piece and apply pipe dope and then reattach it. As he put it, they don’t do this at the factory because it’s not uncommon for people to need a longer tail piece. If it was screwed down tight at the factory it would be hard to get apart. You don’t want to take a pair of pliers to it and ruin the finish.



As soon as he said “a longer tail piece” bells went off in my head. That’s exactly what I need. If you look at the drain in the picture above, you can see that extra 6-inch chrome tail piece just above the P trap. To me it sticks out like a soar thumb. That should be a single piece of nickel pipe that runs from the basin to the trap. DE Bath sells a 12-inch long, inch and a quarter, nickel tail piece. I can use it to replace both the original nickel tail piece and the chrome addition. It’s $28, and I swore I wouldn’t spend another cent on this vanity, but what the hell.

I also found a 30-inch door for the bathroom. I thought I was going to need to cut down a 32-inch door. A few weeks back I measured all of the doors I have stacked up in the door room and I thought they were all 32-inch. I have 18 of those Eastlake doors, believe it or not. Anyway, on Monday I decided to search out a good candidate for trimming and I started measuring them again. I was hoping to find a door that had already been trimmed a little. Sure enough, one of them was 30-inches.

It needs a little help, but it’s not too bad. The paint needs to be stripped off, that’s a given, but beyond that, it has a thin crack in one of the panels, and another very minor crack near the mortise for the lock set. It even had a very nice, working lockset in it. So that’s the job this week – getting the door ready.

Happy 4th everyone!

The Bathroom Two Step

I got the sink all hooked up, and it did not go willingly. Working with vintage plumbing is always a bit of a chore. Even though I think the results are worth it, it takes longer and you sometimes need to be creative.

For starters, my ultra-cool 1890s Peck Bros. faucets do not have standard threads on them. They are just a hair shy of half inch threads. I can get a half inch nut to thread on but it is very loose. There is no way it would hold water.

This was no surprise because I’ve known about this since I bought them. What I ended up doing was taking a copper male and female threaded end piece (these are the inch long parts you would solder on to the end of a copper pipe) and soldered them together. I then threaded the female end on to the faucets as best as they would go, and soldered them in place. It worked well and you can’t see them unless you’re on the floor looking up under the vanity.

The basin was a major pain. I had to buy new mounting brackets to set in to the underside of the marble because the old ones were gone. They work like concrete anchors, in that there is a sleeve and wedge. You drill a three eights inch wide hole a half inch deep and put in the sleeve. You then hammer in the wedge part and in theory the anchor is set in the marble. The wedge part has the threads to accept the mounting screw.

The problem I had was that it takes a while to drill in to the marble. It takes a little over a minute to get a half inch deep and inevitably the drill wobbles and bit, and so the hole is not perfect. In concrete you maybe be drilling 2 or 3 inches in so it’s no big deal if the hole isn’t perfect all the way down. There is still plenty of area for the anchor to wedge it’s self in to. Not so on the half inch deep hole in the marble. The anchors kept popping out.

I eventually had to re-set them all with epoxy. The other problem with the brackets was that they were not made for a sink this thick. The sink anchors are modern kholer anchors and are made for modern sinks. The original anchors would have been a threaded post set with lead. The post would have stuck out 2 or 3 inches. I had to buy longer screws and fabricate new brackets. It just seemed to go on and on getting this basin installed.

I finally got the basin in only to discover the drain pipe wasn’t long enough to reach the P Trap. This was kind of my fault. When I put in the drain I had the choice to run it above the shut-off valves or below. I chose below because I wanted to show off the P Trap. Well, I had to go buy a 6-inch tail piece and, of course, it’s chrome and not nickel.

So now I have a nickel drain pipe, connected to a chrome tail piece, which is connected to a nickel P Trap. It’s looks kind of screwy but there is no way I’m spending more money on this vanity. A new nickel plated tail piece is $34 plus shipping. It really, really bugs me though.

The only thing I didn’t have a problem with was putting it all together. Once I got everything figured out it all went together nicely and I had no leaks. That’s my one saving grace. I also got a lot of the other bathroom parts installed. I had to rewire all 3 of the fixtures, but that was pretty straight forward, and they’re now hung. The TP holder and soap dish went fine even though I had to drill through tile {nervous grin}. I also got the telescoping mirror hung. I almost decided against hanging it, but I’m glad I did.

The three arm towel rod I may not install because it sticks out too far. There is really no good place for it. I also decided to do without the nickel/glass shelf. There is only one good place for it, but because I’m not using the three arm towel rod, I need a real towel rod. Once I get one, it will need to go where the shelf was going to be. I really don’t need the shelf, because I have the built-ins, so it was just going to be for show anyway. The shelf and towel rod will be on Ebay soon. I have some other leftovers to get rid of as well.

So the last 2 steps to do are set up the faucet, shower, and supply lines on the tub, and hang the door. The door doesn’t exist, as such, at this time. It looks like I’m going to be trimming down a 32-inch door. It’s not the best solution but the bathroom needs a door. I’m going to wait on the tub until next weekend. The supply lines for the tub don’t have shut off valves and I don’t want to be in there until 9:00 at night on Monday fighting plumbing so I can get the water turned back on. That’s a weekend job.

So, next up, the door. Aside from the tub and door I need a cover for the fan and the marble for the large built-in. The fan cover is an old cast iron heater grate and is in transit as I write. The marble will need to wait a bit.

That Sinking Feeling

That’s the feeling I had yesterday when I drilled the holes in to the floor for the sink legs. Each leg has a small post on the bottom that needs to fit in to a hole in the floor. The wall brackets for the sink need to be mounted on to the subway tile. That means more drilling through tile.

Months back I made a plywood template I would use to make sure the holes were drilled in the right place. The legs have a double off-set, so it was not a given exactly where the holes would go. This thing didn't exactly come with instructions. Or if it did, I'm sure they were tossed out 100 years ago.

After a little figuring, I found the sweet spot, but this meant the template had two sets of holes for the legs. Then later I switched to a slightly smaller vanity top so I had to reposition everything on the template. So now both the wall brackets and legs had multiple holes on the template.

Yesterday I was just a little foggy all day. It was just one of those days that I was a little out of step with the rest of the world. I almost put-off drilling in to the tile, but I really wanted to get the sink mounted.

I drilled away and wasn’t as cautious as I normally am. After I pulled up the template I really didn’t have a good mental image of myself double checking to make sure I got the right holes. It was all kind of a blur. I had this horrible feeling I had screwed up.

In the end, I didn’t, but there was a good hour from the time I drilled the holes until I tested the fit of the sink that I just had a pit in my stomach. After months of work and planning I thought I would either end up with a crooked sink or maybe some extra holes in the tile floor and wall.

You have no idea how relieved I am to have this thing installed. Tomorrow I’ll mount the sink and hook up the plumbing.

Maiden Voyage of the SS HAJOCA

I got the toilet installed today, sort of. It was really a lot of work and I have one tiny, tiny leak that I can’t make go away. It’s at the transition from the flush valve to the flush tube. These are all new parts and there is a new washer in there. I took it apart and put it back together and it still leaks. I physically can’t tighten it any more. It is a fraction of a drop every 30- seconds. It could not be a smaller leak and I can’t make it stop. It’s very frustrating. I must admit though, the toilet looks great, and that is what’s important after all.



I may need to remove the tank and install a new washer tomorrow. There is also a small piece of trim that goes just under the tank, and I need to add some lead weights to the flush lever. Originally this would have had a cast iron flush valve inside and the weight would not have been an issue. With the new flush valve the lever is too heavy and the flapper won’t stay down. I just need to add some lead fishing sinkers to add a bit of weight to it. I had to do the same thing to my upstairs toilet.



Another problem was one of the slip nuts for the supply line. It’s that large brass nut at the tank. It’s a 7/8ths inch slip nut and I had to go to 3 hardware stores to find one. I also left the wax gasket in the sun too long and it fell off as I was putting the toilet on. It pretty much fell apart so that was another trip to the hardware store.

The long flush tube had to be trimmed at both ends. I was paranoid about cutting too much off, so there was a lot of trimming and testing. Very time consuming.

Also, on these old toilets there are 4 bolts that mount them to the floor. There are two at the closet flange, just like most modern toilets, and then two at the front that screw in to the floor. As we all know, my floor is the Oberon Saloon tile. I bought a $12, ¼ inch Glass/Tile drill bit. I alternated between two holes because I had a feeling the bit wouldn’t last. I was right. The thing absolutely disintegrated about half way through both tiles. I didn’t even make it a total of a half inch in and the bit literally fell apart. I then destroyed a ¼ inch masonry bit to finish the holes.

When all was said and done the bolts were too short to make it in to the sub floor. I have half inch tile and half inch cement board. It was a complete waste of time, money, and drill bits. The bolts are there, but they do absolutely nothing. I’ve going to need to drill 3/8th inch holes in the tile for the sink. That should be fun.



I also got the marble on the small cabinet. I’ve decided to do it on large one as well, but that maybe weeks away. And I broke down and moved the tub so I could re-grout the tile under there. Honestly, this bathroom may never be finished.

Trimmed Out

I managed to get a few things done during the week. I finished pretty much all of the trim work in the bathroom, which really only amounted to trimming out one window, because everything else was done. It may not sound like much, but it included making a marble window sill (I think it’s called a stool when it’s on the inside), and I had to make the apron (the part under the stool), which entailed some router work. I also made the cove trim, which goes under the stool and in front of the apron.

On top of that, the casing is more of the 1895 casing I’m reusing from the front rooms. The pieces were thick with paint, so that meant more paint stripping. I then had to paint everything after it was installed. I do one coat or primer and 2 top coats. The whole thing was surprisingly involved.

The last thing to do in the way of trim is to make the counter tops for the 2 little built-ins. I was going to go with tile, but now I’m leaning towards marble. I have enough to do the little built-in but not the big one. Judging on what I’ve paid for marble in the past, I'm thinking it’s about $100 for the one counter. I don’t need to decide right now.

The paint on all of the trim is the SW Queen Anne’s Lace. It’s a very pale green and it’s a bit of a chameleon color. When it’s up against the darker green walls it looks very nice. On the lower parts though, it tends to get washed out by the white tile on the walls and floors. When looking at the door casing from top to bottom it almost seems to change colors. Not much I can do about it.

Here’s a few shots of the nearly finished trim. It was hard to get a good shot of the window because the light coming in prevented to flash from going off when I shot it straight on.

The Built-Ins Are Built In

Before anything, though, I got the heater hooked up and running, because this is, after all, June in Eureka. The days are pleasant, but the nights can get a bit chilly. This bathroom is on the west side of the house, and without the use of a heater, it takes a while to warm up.



The next issue was the door. I’ve been collecting period Eastlake doors for years, and I actually have more than I need. The problem is, I only have one 30-inch door, and it is majorly funkified. This thing may be beyond repair. The best thing it’s got going for it is the fact that it’s 2 and a half inches too short for the opening. After that, things go down hill quickly. It’s cracked, has chunks missing, and big dings in it. Still, it’s a 30-inch door so I hung it anyway. I like to know that the jamb is square and true before I put the trim on. It looks like I may end up cutting down one of my many 32-inch doors for the opening.







There is a mix of primer and paint in the pictures. I hope to start with the top coats tomorrow. It went pretty smooth putting the built-ins in. At this point the plan is to do hex tile counter tops. I would like to do marble, but I don’t have enough. I have enough for the small built-in, but not the larger one.

The casing and plinth blocks are original to the house. Some of the grand entry ways were reduced in size during the 1920s apartment phase. They cut down the trim to get it to fit to the newly reduced size doorways. I had new casing made for the re-enlarged openings, and this original stuff is perfect for things like this. In fact, this entire doorway, with the jambs, casing, and plinth blocks was the opening from the foyer to the front parlor before I took it out. The corner blocks are reproductions of the originals, so this looks exactly like all of the other doorways in the house.

I am really glad this is over. Next up will be the trim for the stained glass window. I’m doing a marble sill on that, so I need to borrow a friends tile saw to cut it. I’m not sure when that’s going to happen.

All But Two Slivers

You can see at the left side of the door there are two half tiles that need to be installed. I need to get the door open to do that, which I can’t at the moment. I guess it was a little over 2 years ago when I re-enclosed this small area of the porch that had been opened up in the 1920s. At the time I new I was going to be doing some period style tile in here eventually. What I didn’t know at the time was that the tile would be a half-inch thick.

I had to do the last of the tile while sitting outside the backdoor. Well, after I got all of the tile in, guess what? The door wouldn’t close. It closed most of the way, but for the last few inches the outside corner dragged on the tile. I pulled up on the door as hard as I could and eventually forced it shut. I need to wait until the tile sets and then I can force it back open, and then remove the door and trim just a hair off the bottom. After that, I can then put in those last two half tiles.

I was happy with the spacing, though. I was afraid I would end up with ¾ tiles, or some other odd size at the end. I’m also happy with the fact that I don’t have a ridiculously crooked row at the door. After installing 15 linear feet of tile across the floor, the last row at the door is surprisingly straight. I would say there is less than a quarter inch difference in the width of the last tiles from one side of the door to the other. Frankly, I’m shocked.



I also got very lucky at the transition from the kitchen to the mud room. As you can see, I have all half and whole tiles up against the marble threshold. The tiles are a little crammed in to accomplish this. The grout lines go down to a hairs breadth at some places. I think it’s better than having a bunch of funky sized tiles at a very prominent focal point.

So that’s pretty much it. I hope I can start to grouting tomorrow. I need to deal with the back door first. I’ve decided I’m going to use the Antique White grout. I’m just really very tired, both physically and mentally, from dealing with the tile. I really don’t want to dig out and re-grout the area under the tub.



Above you can see what I call Reject Sill. There are little piles like this all over the place. All things considered, the loss wasn’t too bad. I opened 18 of the 20 boxes I salvaged, and I think all of the rejected tile would make up about 2 boxes. That means I was right at about 100 sq ft of tile installed.



Over all I’m very happy with the floor. It is a bit funky, I’ll admit. The uneven and tightly spaced grout lines I really like. The only thing I wish I could correct is the thickness of the tile. Given that they all aren’t exactly a half inch thick, there is a variation in the height of the tiles. It’s very subtle, but it is there.

I tried to correct for it when I noticed it as I was installing, but it was hard. During installation, I’m basically looking directly down on the tiles, and it was not always easy to spot the problem tiles. It could be an issue when sweeping the floor, but I don’t clean my bathrooms that often anyway, so it shouldn’t be an issue for me.

I’m hoping I can get some major plumbing things installed this weekend because next week I’m starting a very hectic pace in my life. I’m sure the blog is going to suffer tremendously, but I’ll be back.

Tiles In!

The bathroom anyway. I still have the little mud room. The bathroom is a little over 10X6, and the little mud room is just about 4X5. I’ve gone through 12 of the 20 boxes of tile, so I’m in very good shape. The goal is to finish up the mudroom tomorrow, then let everything sit on Wednesday, and then grout on Thursday. The grout has become a bit of an issue, but first, a picture

Ta-da!


As for the gout, the original plan was to do a light gray grout. I used gray mortar to set the tile and I bought an un-sanded grout called “Delorian Gray”. I first grabbed it because I thought it was called “Dorian Gray”. I think that would have been a cooler name for it, but who am I.

Anyway, I was all set for Delorian Gray until I had the problems with the tile under the tub. I wasn’t happy with my grout lines so at the last minute I switched to “Antique White”. It’s very similar to the color of the tile, or, at least the color some of the tile. There are variations among the different tiles. I was worried about this as well, but I think it’s very pleasant, and actually probably better than having all uniformly white tile on the floor.

Anyway again, I now have all of the tile in the bathroom, and if I was getting a report card on my installation the teacher would probably write “Much Improved”, and I would agree. With the exception of one area, I think the rest of the bathroom came out very nice and I think it would be nice to show off my razor thin, yet asymmetrical grout lines.

Unfortunately I’ve hooked my wagon to Antique White. It seems it would be very odd to have Antique White under the tub area and Delorina Gray in the rest of the bathroom. Don’t get me wrong, the antique white is not hideous. It’s not like I have gag reflexes every time I look at it. I just think the light gray would be better.

I’m left with 2 options. One, I could just do the whole bathroom in Antique White and be done with it. The other option is to move the tub out of the way. Get a grout knife and carve away at the antique white grout, and then regrout the entire bathroom in Delorian Gray. At this point, I’m leaning so far towards option one I’m practically laying on the floor.

Option 2 would push the whole project back a few days. You might be thinking that it’s already been 6 months working on this stupid, God forsaken bathroom, what could a few days possibly matter. Well, IT’S BEEN SIX FREAKIN MONTHS WORKING ON THIS STUPID, GOD FORSAKEN BATHROOM!!!! I’M READY TO BE DONE WITH IT!!!!

I have until Thursday to decide.


A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
Oscar Wilde

Funky See, Funky Do

These tiles started out life as “Seconds” and it’s easy to see now why they were designated as such. They are Funky with a capital “F”.



At this point I really must laugh at the fact that over a 100 years ago they were deemed second quality. They were either going to be dumped or sold at a discount someplace. Then 100 years later I chisel them off the floor and reinstall them. Many of the first quality tiles are probably still not around, and here these poor little tiles are starting a new life.

Some things I’ve learned about these tiles are a) they are not all 2-inches wide, and b) they are not all a half inch thick. These are the reasons they were deemed “Seconds”, I’m sure. Ninety nine percent of them are 2-inches wide, but many of them are not a half inch thick. I’ve been able to spot the few narrow ones (we’re talking an eighth of an inch or less off) and I use them when the grout lines start to get tight. It actually works out well



I was meticulous with the first few rows past the tub area. I laid out all of the tiles ahead of time and made sure they were good. I had to put in a half row on either side of the divider, and that took a lot of time. I used a sliver of half inch cement board to raise the quarter round a little. I’m not thrilled with contrast between the super white, glazed quarter round and the, shall we say, less than white unglazed tiles. I almost ran down to the home center to see if I could find a substitute, but decided against it. I really won’t find a match, so why bother.



Once I got past the first few rows the pace picked up, but it is still slow, meticulous work. Laying them free-hand, without the spacers is definitely the way to go. I’ve had far fewer problems than I had in the tub area. Below is a close up for John. I think it looks good. I really, really like them.

Interesting Comments & Tub’s In

I got a comment from John, the owner of DEA Bath today. It was short and to the point, but it speaks volumes.

Hi Greg;
Glad you got the last order right. Yes, we did have an idiot working the front, but he's gone. Things should be better now.
John
Bathroom Machineries

After I got the comment I thought back to my first encounter with the “idiot” last December. At the time, John called my house to try and figure out what was going on after I shot off an angry email. I never returned his call, but in hindsight I should have.

I’m not one to be a squeaky wheel, especially now that I have the blog, but had I known then that I would be dealing with them as much as I did over the past 6 months it would have been worth it to return the call. So, it seems John cleaned house, and I’m sure it’s for the better, and I learned a lesson. If it’s someone you plan on doing a lot of business with, let your bad experiences be known early on.

I also got a very interesting email from a member of the Petch family. This is an actual, real live Petch that can be traced right here to this house. It was from the Great Grand Daughter of Thomas and Phyllis Petch. Her father is the son of the youngest of the Petch boys.

Apparently, the grand son of Thomas Petch, the woman’s father who contacted me, is getting on in years, and the family decided to make a trip to No. California to see where it all started for the Petch Family in America. I guess after some brief Googling they found my blog and want to stop by for a visit this summer when they’re in the area. I said yes, naturally.

The best part is, they have pictures, or at least a picture. The woman mentioned she has a family picture dated 1888. That does pre-date the Petch House, but that’s fine by me. To date, I’ve not found one scrap of a picture of anything relating to the house or the family and I’ve poured over several photo archives. So, that’s pretty exciting.



And finally, the tub is in and hooked up to the drain. It fits nicely, but it is off-set one inch to the left for some reason. I planned on 4-inches on all sides. No matter, it’s in and it looks nice. Now I can start to tile the rest of the floor.

My Final Petch House Project

Yep, this is it. The bathroom will be the last project I ever work on on The Petch House. Oh, it’s not that I don’t want to work on any other projects. It’s just that the bathroom project will never end. I’ve come to the conclusion that I will be working on the bathroom until the end of time.

After some serious butt dragging I finally started installing The Oberon Saloon tile. Honestly, I never thought I would write that. One of the reasons for the butt dragging is because of one of my personality traits. I’ve been here before many times. This weekend I was at that point of no return on the tile installation. Once I started there was the chance it wouldn’t turn out well, so in my warped mind, if I never start, then I’ll never screw up. There’s that, and my whole attitude is in the crapper this week.

Well, I sort of pushed through that mental barrier and started this morning. Actually, it was more like this afternoon when I started. Anyway, it was very slow going at first. I’m doing the shower area first, and I will finish it with grout before I move on to the rest of the bathroom. Once the shower area is done I can move the tub in to that area and get it off the floor of the rest of the bathroom.

I started by laying one row of tile along the back wall to see about spacing. I was very close to having no partial tiles on the first row. I then laid two rows in mortar. After I laid the tiles in mortar though, it wasn’t as close as in my test run. I had to quickly try and nudge all of the tiles to make up a half inch near the wall. It didn’t work as well as I hoped, and some of the gaps between the tiles are wider than others.

I almost pulled it all up and started over but I decided not to. You won’t see any of this because it will be behind the tub. As I moved out away from the wall I’m able to slowly fix the problems with the first two rows.

I found one-sixteenth inch spacers at a tile store, so I started using them for this installation. I started and then I stopped. They are really time consuming to put in. There are 6-sides to each tile, and putting in all of the spacers really slows down the process. After 3 and a half rows I just started doing it by eye. I’m able to move faster and the results are the same.

I think that’s probably how they were put in originally. The original installation had an organic property to it. The tiles weren’t all evenly and perfectly spaced. I recall that when I was pulling up the tile, I thought the installation looked a bit amateurish in places. Now I see why. Even with the spacers, it’s hard to keep everything lined up perfectly. It’s hard to explain why. Maybe there is a little too much mortar in places and it prevents you from getting the tile in close, or it could be something else. It’s very odd.

Because I’m creating a giant honeycomb, subtle variations in the grout lines can get magnified over several rows. Just as quickly the variations disappear, or sort of move over and end up someplace else.

Definitely, the first two rows being a little wacky has caused problems in later rows. The good news is, I’ll get a second chance to start over. There will be a divider of quarter-round between the tub and the rest of the bathroom. I will pay closer attention to that first row once I’m on the bathroom side of the divide. The tub area is good practice.

This is all I have to show for my retched self.

Marathon Man

Quick, what’s 123X36X6? You give up? That equals 26,568 2-inch sides of pure, living hell.

One hundred and twenty three square feet of tile.
Thirty six tiles to a square foot.
Six sides on a tile.

Is that right? Does that really come to 26,568, or did I do that math wrong? That number seems too big, but regardless, the fucking tile is cleaned. I cleaned all of the Fucking, God Damned Oberon Saloon tile!

It’s done!


I finished!


Now I need to install it. My life is a chaotic mess at the moment, so it looks like Saturday, at the earliest.

Tub Is Ready

I painted the outside of the tub today and attached the newly {Shwing!} nickel plated feet.



I glued the tub to the ceiling to get it out of the way and make it easier to work on. I used more of the 3M 5200 Marine Adhesive Caulk to stick it up there. Boy, this 3M 5200 is incredibly strong stuff. Even through the cardboard it’s holding the tub up there. I hope I can get the tub down when the time comes.



This tub came out of the downstairs rental bathroom that was in the 2 story addition I removed. The tub is dated 1922 but the toilet was dated 1926, so I’m not sure exactly when the addition was built. Either they had an old tub, or the toilet was replaced very early on.

The visible side in the picture will be against the wall once it’s installed. The other side, that you can’t see in the picture, had never been painted, which is cool. I should be able to get a good long lasting paint job on the bare cast iron. I sanded the whole thing down and then washed it. After that I applied a few coats of flat black Rustoleum.



I painted the upstairs tub the same way. I like the contrast between the white enamel on the inside and the flat black on the outside. Also, the nickel feet really stand out against the black. I didn’t nickel plate the feet on the upstairs tub because I’m really a cheap bastard. You wouldn’t know it the way I’m spending money on the downstairs bathroom, but really I am. On the upstairs tub I just painted them with a sliver paint. The main reason I plated the feet for the downstairs tub was because of the design of the shower, otherwise they would have gotten the silver paint as well. These feet will see a lot more water, so I’m hoping the plating will protect them some.



Here it is after I got it off the ceiling and with the feet attached. The inside of the tub is in mostly very good condition, with the exception of the area just under the faucet. It looks like some lazy ass landlord didn’t fix a leaky faucet for like 40 years or something. (Me yelling at the window while shaking my fist, “Damn you lazy bastards! Damn you to hell!”). It’s not rust, so much as the enamel is worn down. There is noticeable discoloration. Once I get it hooked up to water I’m going to see how well it cleans up with some Bar Keepers Friend and a little grunt work.



If that doesn’t work I will sand that area a bit and paint it with some white enamel spray paint. Someone told me once that this is a good way to fix minor problems like this. There is a special paint to use, but I don’t know what it is. I think Sacto Diane mentioned it on one of the forums once. I’ll need to search her out. I’ve been told that even a good resurfacing will only last about 5 years, so I’m trying to stave off that as long as possible.

And fiiiinally (Say that with as much exasperation as is possible) I finished working under the house. My goal is to not crawl under the house for 12 months straight. That will be a record. After I finished all of the drains for the tub, the last thing to do was finish the exhaust for the dryer. Right where that dryer vent is there was a “after market” hatch added to the house. It wasn’t done well and has been broken since the day I bought the place. I think it was added by a plumber or electrician in the last 20 years or so.



There are 2 other real access hatches to get under the house, but because of the rats nest of pipes and wires under the house from the apartment days, it was impossible to get from Point A to Point B while under the house. Anyway, I had a few pieces of the original bead board skirting that I found under the addition I removed, so I got rid of the crappy hatch and just boarded it over with the beadboard.

You’ll notice the ham loaf just had to be in the picture. I swear, I think he understands the concept of photography.