Trenton Pottery Sink Mispriced... oh darn.

Apparently the Trenton Pottery Company was a big deal back in the day www.periodbath.com/trenton_potteries.html

The house probably had an original Trenton Pottery Sink when it was first built. The Trenton Pottery Company/Crane Company made 90% of American home's sinks back in 1926.

I did not know this at the time and I went to a place called Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley, Ca.  I spoke about Ohmega in a previous entry.   Here, I fell in love with an old pedestal sink with brand new Waterworks fixtures www.waterworks.com/
The price was a bit beyond our price range, but it was the exact measurement we needed given where the newly discovered, original tile was placed on our bathroom wall, so, I took the plunge and bought it.  Now during this whole house restoration project, I have been researching everything until I am all googled out, but with this item, I did no research and basically knew nothing about the piece, other than it's age range, which suited the house (1920s-1930s) and that it was very pretty. 

Apparently, the salvage company also didn't do their homework because they priced it at over $1000 less than what it's worth and what they sold it to me for.  I love those kinds of oopses.  If they ever figured it out, we were at least half way over the Bay bridge on our way home with our new sink.

Move over mauve vanity monstrosity and hello Trenton Pottery Sink!

 Here is your new home!

There is tile behind the 1980s monster vanity and I officially endorse Goof OFF!

From the moment I first walked into the master bath, I knew the whole vanity with the dark mauve granite had to go.  Then there was the 48"x 36" dual sided, all mirrored medicine cabinet... that had to go too.  In investigating further, I discovered that behind the giant, mirrored, medicine cabinet there were, what appeared to be, the original tiles.
I took all the drawers out of the vanity and opened the cabinets under the dual sinks to discover that sure enough, the original tiles were still there, but what condition were they in?  Were they salvageable?  And, did I really want to tear out all this stuff which could then lead to having to re-tile the entire bathroom and having to file for divorce?   I could try to save as many as I could and then  replicate/reproduce the original tile design for the decorative tiles that got destroyed, but that was going to prove to be costly... $300 alone to draw up a design plus $20+ per tile. The answer was ultimately yes, I'll risk it and OH BOY I HOPE I'M NOT GOING TO BE SORRY I DID THIS but there was no way that monster vanity was staying in my bathroom.

We started the demo last week and I was there during the whole process making sure that my contractor wasn't in too much of a hurry to destroy.  I have noticed lately that men love to pick up a hammer and saw and start banging and cutting.
Slowly he took the vanity apart... making sure that as he pulled it off the wall, it wouldn't take the tile off or break the tile in the process.

It went remarkably well with the exception of a few of the decorative tiles that had what appeared to be some sort of concrete like adhesive on them and some of the solid colored tile had to be broken to accommodate the new pipes being put in for the pedestal sink.  I was confident I could find something very similar to replace those solid colored tiles, but the decorative ones had me nervous.

Here in San Jose, CA there is an amazing store called FireClay.  Here they have hundreds of thousands of tiles.  Some are old, some are new, some are imported, but most are made on site and they are eco-friendly in how they produce their products.  Their handmade tiles are made up of recycled and sustainable materials.  This was right up my alley, so I went down there to see if I could find a solid tile that would match the tiles we had to break and to see if they knew how to get the goop (whatever it was) off my decorative tile. www.fireclaytile.com/

In their boneyard (kind of like the island of misfit toys, but for tiles) I found almost an exact match to my original solid tile and best of all, I got 24 tiles (many more than I needed) for $5.00.  Yes... five bucks.  And, long story short... the adhesive that was used to adhere the large piece of offensive, dark mauve granite back splash, was removed with Goof Off... this once again proving that my father is a wise man.  Some of his sage advice includes: "You can paint that." and "Nothing that a little duct tape can't fix." and now my all time favorite "Goof off will clean that stuff right off." www.goofoffstainremover.com/

Next steps: re-tiling the spaces left by the broken tiles and putting in the sink.  Ordering a new medicine cabinet and picking out vintage or handcrafted looking storage and getting new lighting put in.  I also might as well resurface the mauve bathtub given that our 4.5' tub is rare and hard to find, I officially hate the color mauve and taking the existing tub out would mean re-tiling the floor and definite divorce proceedings.

I got out of this potential disaster pretty cleanly, why tempt the Gods of Home Restoration if it isn't truly necessary?

Salvage Companies... What a find!

Ever wonder what happens to all the materials inside and outside of an old home when someone decides to demolish and start anew?

First, let me just say that seeing an old, grand, masterpiece become rubble to make room for the newest McMansion, is something I find really sad, but I won't get into it here. I have a big enough opinion about that to create quite a few blogs.

Today we went to an amazing place here in Berkeley, CA. It's called Ohmega Salvage and if you are looking for anything old, vintage, historic, rare, and hard to find... This IS the place.

Best parts of salvaging these pieces? Well, you are recycling, reusing, giving these things that someone crafted, in most cases probably by hand, a chance to be showcased again... Plus... you're getting them for a steal!

We found four original, wrought iron, 1920s, Spanish Colonial Revival light fixtures... a brass turn bell for deliveries at our side gate... a six foot piece of matching molding for the new wall we're constructing in the dining room... and two doorbell plates for our front door and courtyard gate... ALL for the bargain price of $94.82... Talk about a MEGA deal.

And the entertainment value of going through this treasure trove of historic materials and wacky junk is priceless. I've never seen so many toilets, doors, or claw foot tubs in my life and the kids had a blast. We told them it was pirate's treasure and it really did feel that way for us too.

Will definitely be returning once we move into restoring the upstairs bath. I may just return to hang out.








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Satin or sheen? Then mission complete

After three days of sanding, blending, filling, and sanding some more... the time for staining finally came.

We went with Antique Brown because it's dark enough to make a very large room look warm, a small room feel cozy, and bring a richness to the spaces. We had thought about going with stain that is almost like paint called Ebony. Ebony makes the floors look almost black, but the thought of seeing every speck of dust at any given moment was enough to drive me crazy, so we went for the next darkest stain (a true stain).
We also have white oak floors on the lower level of the house and the lighter wood absorbs the stain much more.
If you have pine, birch, maple or white oak, you have to go as dark as you can to achieve that warm, milk chocolate color. It's also an oil based stain which will protect the floors from scratches a lot better than a water based stain will and we coated it with polyurethane. It stinks to holy... But, it's well worth it if you aren't inhabiting the house for a few days. It will protect the floors for a lot longer than if you used other top coats.

Satin? Sheen? Super Gloss?

I went with Sheen. It gives the impression that the floors were just mopped, but without looking like a museum and it hides the dust a little better.

Thanks Home Restoration Gods. After the huge surprises last week with the holes all over the floors, I never thought we'd finally get to this phase.

Floors done... Next up painted the molding, trim, and starting to install the light fixtures.


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A wall where there wasn't a wall where there was a wall

Picture it... It's 1990 and new tract homes are introducing the "Great Room".  This is a room in which a living room, family room, dining room and kitchen all exist in the same space.  If that's what you like and it works for you... great... buy a new tract home or build your own custom home and have a "great room".  Don't take a historic property from 1926 and try to turn it into a modern home... that always takes a turn for the worse and you end up ruining what was beautiful and unique about the house.

Sometime around 1992, a wall was taken out that divided the kitchen from the dining room.  The kitchen breakfast nook was no more and now you had this big open space where there once was a division that made for a more formal dining room and a less formal kitchen eat-in area.  We discovered this while looking through the original plans of the house.  Most historic homes in major cities have the plans archived in the city records office.  If at any point in time permits were pulled to remodel, original plans were included and saved.

One of the things that we most love about old homes is the fact that the rooms are all divided, but that those same rooms are all really ample in size.  I love the fact that you can go from room to room and discover another cozy corner to sit in or a window seat to lounge in etc...  There is some mystery and a sense of discovery in an old home that you just can't get in a wide open room in the newer construction.

The wall is going back up.

Our formal dining room becomes formal again and our kitchen now gets a built in breakfast nook with a window seat that you can sit at with a cup of tea while looking out into your yard.

We are matching an arch on the other side of the dining room wall because that is how it appears to have been originally and then using plaster to copy the texture of the original walls and matching the custom baseboard.

I hope the house is feeling more like it's old self again.

OH NO!!!! That Was Unexpected

We were so happy to discover beautiful red oak, hardwood floors underneath the leopard... remember?  Well, when we lifted all of Mr. Leopard off of the beautiful hardwood floors, we discovered that the home restoration gods also have a great sense of humor, because there were holes cut into the hardwood floors to make way for electrical wires and or cables of some sort and not only that, but they were horizontal cuts into the vertically laid planks.  OH... and did I mention that there was an electrical box which had been an outlet at one point... smack dab in the middle of the room?  Yup, in the floor.

 Surprise!

So... I have learned during this process, that some of the people that work with wood really develop a passion for the stuff.  Carpenters are especially passionate about wood floors.  My Russian carpenter is VERY "in love" with wood floors.  I have also discovered that when you get people that restore homes rather than remodel them, they hold nothing back in their contempt for those (insert Russian insult here) who, in their minds, desecrate and cut into beautiful, red oak, planks to make way for the ALL important TV cable and or phone wiring.

So, began the debate about what to do to appease the illegal leopard gods or how to let the home restoration gods know that we very much appreciated the cachinnation (or in my case, exasperation) over this most disturbing discovery.

I must also say that my Russian floor guy is not exactly a "see the glass half full" kinda guy.  I got a lot of "Oh, I don't know" and "This is going to be VERY tricky" and "This is the hardest job I have ever had" and "Never in ALL of my years of dealing with floors have I EVER seen any (insert another Russian expletive here) do something like this"

We had two choices... we take it all out and put in new wood floors for double what the original entire job (which was just sanding and re staining existing floors) would  have cost or work with what we got and be creative and hope that the home restoration gods would once again be merciful.

Being that we are budget conscious and lets face it, I like a good challenge, we decided to let our Russian friend know that we needed him to step up to the plate and be creative with a solution.  He was REALLY thrilled about that.

He cut boards and feathered the new wood into the old wood.  Spent all weekend doing it (REALLY, REALLY thrilled about that) and now...

Next step will be sanding and blending and sanding and blending and sanding...

Home restoration gods... please be kind.

Mind the Gap

Back in 1926 there was no code per say on how far apart the spacing on the balustrade on a staircase should be and therefore, we wound up inheriting very large gaps between the balustrades on our staircase. 
Now... I am one for simplicity and leaving things that are old and of historical significance alone... after all, I am restoring this house to the way it was back in the day.  But, I also have two small children who I know have enough curiosity and are fearless enough that they WILL attempt to get themselves between the gaps (which isn't hard at all to do given I can squeeze through there) just to see what would happen if they fell 12ft on to the 80 year old Spanish tile in the entryway.

Enter welder... a modern day blacksmith.

You can choose to have the entire railing replaced which is VERY costly if you are going with wrought iron (which is what this style of house calls for) or, you can choose to try to find something that blends seamlessly into the existing balustrade... which is not at all as costly, but incredibly difficult to accomplish and make look as though it has always been there.

We found a gentleman by the name of Brian of Brian's Welding here in San Jose, Ca and he worked with us to create a design that wasn't too busy and incorporated some of the aesthetics of the existing balustrades.

In the end, we are incredibly pleased with his seamless design and paid a fraction of the cost of what it would have cost us to replace something with so much history and character with something generic and new.

www.brianswelding.com