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

A New Tree is Painted

We have a great friend named Anna Donovan who is a decorative painter and a few years ago painted a beautiful tree mural in my daughter's room.

Moving to a new home is hard for the kids to understand and we've been going to the new house for a couple of months now and taking things and hanging out to watch how some of the projects are coming along.  One of the things they are most concerned about is what will happen to their beds and toys and stuff.  We explained that everything gets put into various sized boxes and into a BIG truck and taken to the new house when the time to move comes... but then, my daughter asked me about the tree and was very sad to learn that her tree had to stay because it's part of the wall.

So, in comes Anna to save the day.  A few weeks ago, a new tree was "planted" and the kids got to watch as she created the branches and added the leaves.  This time, she also added a few leaves that were being "blown away by a breeze" because they are fascinated by the change of seasons and why leaves fall off trees. 

Paint is a wonderful medium of expression and this tree, just like the one left behind, is a great addition to the room.  Thanks Anna and Magpie Painting of San Francisco. http://www.magpiepainting.com/

Eggshell, Semi-Gloss, Oil... paint, paint, and more paint

First thing to do is paint.  Herein lies the problem.  There were spaces that I already knew which paint colors I wanted to use because it works well in our current home and the bed linens, furniture, etc... go well with them.  I like earthy, neutral tones that provide a lot of warmth and richness without taking away from what's in the room. 

The idea is to build a frame with paint so that the portrait it holds (furniture, art, textiles) are the focus.  Benjamin Moore has those rich, full, paint colors that I love, but it also has a higher price tag since partnering up with Pottery Barn (thanks PB).  Enter Kelly Moore (no relation, that I know of).  Kelly Moore has the exact same paint colors that Benny has with a different name.  It's amazing what a good painter will know and what they will share with you if you ask. 

Spanish Sand with Caramel Mountain for an accent wall (accent walls are great because they break up the space) Skin Light with Manchester Mood (1/2) as the accent wall and Gothic Grey (1/2) with Gidget's Secret. 

You'll notice the 1/2 (half)... When you have a color and you like the shade of it, but it's too dark, try lightening it up by asking for 1/2 the formula.  They will add white in some cases or different shades to dial it up in terms of brightness.  This is sometimes easier than going down the color chart or over on the color wheel.  When you do that, you end up having a color that is similar to the one you like, but has a different base color (yellow, blue, pink, etc...) and that often looks nothing like what you liked about the original color.  One thing to note, once you start messing with the formulas, they consider it a custom color and you can no longer return it.  So, if you are unsure, buy a sample size and try it first before buying the whole gallon.  Yes, I did that.  Interested in a color called Persimmon?

Then there is the finish.  That's a whole other ball of wax... Eggshell has sheen and semi-gloss has more sheen than eggshell.  Oil stinks, but it's great for high traffic surfaces such as doors and trims.  Durapoxy is the "new oil" but word of caution, it dries almost instantly and so for a large surface as a wall or door, it makes it look streaky once you start adding that second coat. 

If you have kids, eggshell finish is the way to go.  It provides enough sheen and smoothness that you can easily wipe away dirt without it taking days for the stench of oil based paint to go away.  For a bathroom that exists with a lot of humidity in it, semi-gloss is your best bet.  There is even a formula they can put into the paint that helps mold not develop on bathroom ceilings and walls.

There are those rooms that a flat finish looks great on... formal living room, master bedroom, but if you ding up a wall or it gets colored on, you have to paint to get rid of it... you can't just wipe it off.

Bedrooms, upstairs hallway, are almost finished.  Next up, the living room.  That should be interesting as we are going all white and there are about 200+ shades of white to choose from.

Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink

We spoke a little bit about white washed cabinets earlier and how to revamp them without breaking the bank.  We decided on reconfiguring and painting.  We are taking out doors to make room for open shelving and we are taking out the limestone counter tops. Limestone is beautiful, but not ideal for a kitchen because it is very porous and this one was not well maintained.

We are also taking out the sink in the center island and making it one large working and serving space and putting in a farm house sink in front of the window over looking the backyard because... well... I've always wanted a farm house sink.
Farm house sinks come in a variety of materials.  They are porcelain, fire clay, copper, stainless steel etc... but the most original for the time period of a 1920's house is fire clay and we found a great one on eBay for $380.00 plus shipping.  It was much less than retail and got to us within a week.

Must admit, seeing the demolition made me a little nervous.  It was like "OH NO... no way back now"

The adventure continues and yes that's part of our counter out in the courtyard... yikes.

Leopard Karma

Years ago we were watching an episode of the Dave Chappelle Show... the one where they are talking about car upholstery made of "illegal leopard".  It's off color, a little racist, (growing up in LA,we can relate) and very funny.  So funny, in fact,  that we had an inside joke for the longest time about something being "illegal leopard" when it was found to be tacky and ugly.

Well, the illegal leopard gods have a great sense of humor because the master bedroom (you guessed it) has leopard print, wall to wall, carpet.  Gotta love or, in our case, hate it... so, it's coming out.

Luckily, the home restoration gods are merciful and underneath the illegal leopard, we found the original hardwood floors (beautiful oak).  We are refinishing and re-staining it.

Make the most of what you have.  Not everything has to be replaced.  Most of the time in older homes where carpet was put in, the original flooring lies just under the surface and can be salvaged with some sanding and staining.  It is always much less expensive to refinish than to install new wood floors.

Grape stakes are hard to come by

We have about an acre of land that is divided into two halves.  The top half is landscaped and the bottom half is just open land with an orchard on one side and a whole lot of ivy.
We really wanted to create an area for the kids that has a play structure, a vegetable garden, a picnic area, a tree house and an area for grown ups to just sit and hang out while the kids are monkeying around.  Problem was there was an old fence made with grape stakes (lots of character) and I didn't want new redwood or cedar planks to ruin the vibe of the landscaped upper yard or get rid of something that had some history, SO... the quest to find old, reclaimed, grape stakes to match the fence began, it took a few weeks, but ultimately our search lead us to Monterey Bay. 
Craigslist had an ad and we called a guy down there who has a monopoly on these things and sells them for $2.00 a piece!
We had gotten quotes as high as $800.00 for a simply gate that matched the fence (they had to make it look "weathered"... yadda yadda)
We bought all the stakes we needed for $30.00 and nailed them to a frame.  Total cost of gate, $62.55
and I  have a few extra stakes left over that I will use for a birdhouse project with the kids.  WIN! WIN!  Moral of this post, don't discount any option.  Look at second hand shops, antique stores, salvage yards, eBay and Craigslist for that obscure stuff you're looking for... you'd be surprised at what other people think is junk and how cheap you can get "junk" for.

To Keep or Not To Keep... that IS the question.

Have you ever entered a space and thought, "nope, it's all gotta go."  No?  Happened to me.

Upon entering my new kitchen and seeing pale green cabinets (I've talked about those already) and tile that everyone has insisted looks dirty and will always look dirty no matter how much I mop them (not that I mop), to the (we assume) energy sucking 10 ton commercial refrigerator, and the very worn, not well maintained, limestone counter tops, I thought that it was all getting ripped out and or sold on eBay (my husband was ALL for that).  That was until, I found out that those "dirty" tiles were 400 years old... imported from an old abbey in France (I kid you not).  Well YEAH, they're gonna look dirty...  they're 400 years old!!!!  The fridge?  A Traulsen.  What's that?  Oh, only one of the most sought after refrigerators in the restaurant business that retails for over $4000.  We're still debating over selling THAT on eBay (local pick up only).


That leaves us with the counter tops and they are definitely gone.

Did you know that shopping for stone slabs is a lot like shopping for a new car?  Yes indeed... there is a sales person and a manager (somewhere behind a glass partition who looks you up and down from afar trying to gauge how much he can take you for and how much you LOVE that piece of rock).  I learned today that the price on the price tag isn't really the price.  That if you say your contractor is out of town and couldn't come with you, they give you the discount they woulda given him that he then would NOT have passed onto you and that if you say "well that's ridiculous... it's a big piece of rock" they discount it even MORE.  Look for remnants.  Look for the slabs that are in the back that were sold back to the dealer because too much was bought and are now on consignment.

I needed 60 sq ft total for my counters and island and of course they only sell the slabs in 47 sq ft or
58 sq ft... gotta love it.  I ended up getting a sandy colored Quartz slab called Jerusalem Sand (I don't like the veining in granite) that was on consignment for under $1000 and a I haggled until I was even annoyed with myself for a killer deal on a slab of granite (yes, I know what I said) that was "leathered."  Leathering is when they take the stone and hone it to the point where it's matte, you don't see the veining anymore and it's bulletproof (not literally).  You can't tell if it's wood, stone, or actual leather.  It's very cool.  I got it in a dark brown that resembled a mahogany wood for the island.

Moral of this post, HAGGLE.  Not all rocks are created equal and there is no apparent MSRP on counter top material.

http://www.allnaturalstone.com/

Getting the "whitewash" outta the kitchen

If you were lucky enough to live through the 80s and 90s, you will recall a trend called "whitewashed."  There were "whitewashed" kitchen, bathroom, laundry room,  and hell... even garage cabinets.  The funny thing about "whitewashed" cabinets was that they weren't even white (hence the quotation marks)... they were a very pale shade of pink. 

Unfortunately, my poor kitchen was taken one step further, it's cabinets and center island were "whitewashed" but somehow they turned a pale shade of minty green.
This will be the second thing that goes away.  I'll talk about the first thing that went away in another post (stay posted... couldn't resist). 

The question is, now what?  We don't have the budget to tear it all out and start all over.  Plus, they are very well made oak cabinets... seems a shame to tear that all up.  Refinishing?  Refacing?  I got quotes for both and tearing it out and starting all over proved to be cheaper, but still beyond what I wanted to spend on the cabinets.  I still have the counter top to deal with (that's a whole other sad story) and a new sink to put in that requires rerouting pipes.  So....

PAINT!!!

The cheapest way to update the cabinets and a great way to mix different textures into the kitchen is to paint the cabinets.  I am also leaving a lot of the doors off of the cabinets and creating open shelving... this will be more true to what this 1926 kitchen looked like originally.

I got my inspiration from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Ideas-Better-Gardens-Decorating/dp/0470508949/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309928286&sr=8-1

Next step, picking the paint.

We bought a 1926 Spanish Colonial Revival house, now what?!

About two months ago, while shopping for a Craftsman Bungalow, we walked into the courtyard of a California Spanish Revival home... Now mind you, I've been hooked on Craftsmans for years, live in one currently, and thought this was the only style I truly loved... but two steps into that gated, bricked courtyard with a fountain and a gorgeous 75 year old Japanese Maple, and I was hooked. I hadn't even seen the inside of the house yet and I was ready to make an offer.
So, after a long and stressful process (buying a house these days is a real pain in the ass) we finally have the keys and now I have to figure out how to fix the fact that this house did not go through the 80s unscathed. There's a whole lot of faux painting and a whole lot of mauve and granite.

Join me on my journey to revive a Revival... either because you have one too or because it's too hard to look past what could be a huge train wreak.