Titanic to Luxury

After the bathroom was saved from sinking into the crawl space and was put back together, I replaced the chair railing, baseboard and much of the bead board. I used pine bead board to match what was already in the room. I took more work because of the knotholes, but it has more character than MDF. I painted the room the same beige as some of the other rooms in the house and painted the trim white. I ordered a cast iron claw-foot tub from California and had it installed. I chose chrome feet and fixtures because according to a Victorian-plumbing expert, brass was not used much until the 1930’s and after. Besides, brass is harder to maintain. I chose a new tub over an old one that would have had to be refinished because my plumbing expert said the original finish of a tub is fired at a much higher temperature than a refinish is and the finish would last longer. Sometimes finish on a reconditioned tub can sliver. I ordered the tub and fixtures through a plumbing store that gave me free shipping. They loaded it into my pickup and away I went. It took a couple of burly men to get the crate out of my truck when I got home. Cast iron is heavy, but is so nicer than man-made material.

I did not like how the shower curtain hung down blocking the view of the rest of the room, so I bought cafe curtain tie backs, painted them white to pull the shower curtain back against the wall when not in use.


I found a ceramic shelf to install on the wall at the front of the tub for shampoo and other items. I bought a soap rack on EBAY for a fraction of the cost of the same item at a bath store. I also repaired the window ledge and installed a plantation blind.

Ahh - now candles, scented bubbles and a hot bath in a claw foot tub. Luxury at last!

Washroom Gets a Cleaning

The laundry room is small, but it took a lot of work to repair. Although the shingles were new, the roof above it leaked, and the original installer could not find and fix the leak.

I tore out the sagging ceiling and discovered that if I stood on the stairs, I could look up and see light where the roof met the brick wall above the room. I called in a roofing expert, and he finally found the problem was the flashing. He fixed it so I could go ahead and repair the ceiling. I ripped out some of the lath and plaster and blown-in insulation fell everywhere. I had to haul away insulation and dirt from under the stairs, bucket by bucket full. I insulated the ceiling area and the wall facing the kitchen. My trusted drywaller replaced the ceiling and the wall with drywall. He also repaired places were the plaster was badly damaged.

Some of the casings were missing, so an old family friend carved replacements. He did a wonderful job matching the original.

I replaced the beadboard with MDF (was easier and smoother than pine in this room), floor mouldings, chair rail, and stripped the paint off all the hardware. I painted the room my favorite cream color with white trim and installed a blind, painted and organized the original shelves and added a large boxed light.

The linoleum was in bad shape. My handyman rebuilt the sub floor and laid ceramic tile. The plumbing had to be redone for the new washer and dryer. I put up a handy unit to hang up the mop, broom, duster etc.