Bathroom Redo

This is part of my weekly home improvement series:

Oddly enough, the bathroom was not an original part of this home (built in 1898). The bathroom was a later addition to the mix. It was easily evidenced if you looked at it from the underside (the basement) and the upstairs attic above it. Apparently the area did not have a sewer system until 1908, and no running water until 1910. So originally this house would have been equipped with an outhouse. A few years later I found the site of the original outhouse when I was digging postholes for a fence in the backyard (no poo, just a few rotten timbers and some trash about 4 feet underground). Later, one day, I was helping an elderly neighbor take out his trash. He showed me the site on the streetcorner where there had been a shared pump for the communal well where the original owners and neighbors got their water from. Interesting stuff.


Sink "before"

This is the bathroom after I had stripped off some hideous wallpaper the previous occupants of the home had put up. For some reason they had painted the rest of it this weird pink/purple color.

What you're looking at was probably the original cast iron sink fixture. It was hanging at a crooked angle and the plumbing was literally ducttaped together, rather than properly chemically welded. Pure laziness on the previous owner's part.


before

The claw foot tub was really pimp. This was most certainly an add-on fixture. I'd guesstimate probably around 1910. This same style of tub is still available, but they cost well over $1000. I sanded the rust from the toes and painted it with rustoleum primer.

Notice the carpet on the floor. Who the fuck in their right mind puts carpet on a bathroom floor? I could only imagine how many times that toilet got stopped up and overflowed....how do you clean that? disgusting. The carpet had to go.

You can also see the previous hideous wallpaper there behind the tub.

The walls were horse hair plaster. I couldn't work with the plaster walls too much due to the lead contamination in the walls.

Since the sink was so screwed up, that went in the trash. I wasn't in the mood to try and restore anything by the time I got to that point.

I redid the plumbing to accomodate the pedestal sink. I redid the PVC and CPVC according to code.

Next I rewired the old insulated style electrical system. I placed new switches and outlets, including a GFCI plug next to the sink. Then I replaced the old light fixtures with a bathroom fan and a UL approved lights.

I ripped up the carpet and a layer of old linoleum to find the original tilework. To my horror, I realized they were asbestos tiles. Not a good idea to remove and impossible to dispose of safely. So I simply laid 1/2" OSB and vinyl floor over top and made a good seal at the edges with floor edging (see the above "after" picture).

I carefully "spot" repaired the plaster, being sure to wear a respirator mask while doing so. Then after the plaster was repaired, I painted about 5 layers of paint over the entire thing.


After (partially)

I did the water supply pipes wrong under the pedestal sink, as you can see (thanks to a last minute change in sink style). In fact, eventually that sink also went in the trash and I installed a vanity a few years later. The walls were painted over about ten times. And in this pictures you can see the final primer coat while I figured out which color to finally paint it. It's amazing what a new fixture and a coat of paint can do to a room though. Unfortunately this is the only surviving "after" picture I have, and you can't see the new light fixture. Oh well. You can see the new flooring though.