Kid's Bath - Part 11

There a a few things left, but it's done enough that it can be used.

It's great to finally have a real shower.

With water pressure!

We're waiting on the linen cabinet, a little window hardware, and the mirrors. I can't recommend the place we bought the mirrors from yet - they've been slow and haven't communicated much.

The vanity came from Premiere Vanities, the plumbing fixtures from Faucet Direct, the sconces are vintage from Art and Architecture, and the ceiling fixture from Creative Lighting.

The fan is amazingly quiet.

I love the in-floor heat.

Click on the photo to get to the album that contains more pictures of the finished work.

Literature and Life

Not only is it fun to have a house with a name, it's also fun to see it mentioned in various literature.

I stumbled across another reference to our house recently in Minnesota 1900: Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1915, by Michael Conforti.

It's good to see that the house is always cast in a positive light.

I hope we can do it justice.

New Switches

The latest packages arrived from House Of Antique Hardware and Kilian Hardware.

When we moved in, most of the switches were of the standard kind. One stood out however.

In the Music Room, there was an old push-button switch. It was very cool and had a nondescript brass cover-plate covered by many coats of paint.

We decided to go back to push-button switches in the "public" areas of the house. The twist is that we found more decorative cover-plates. We also found some dimmer switches that mimic the old push-button switches.

So in my spare time I've been installing these as well. They coordinate well with the antique sconces.

New Sconces

We've never been enamored with many of the sconces in the house. They (top photo) sort of look like someone found a 24-pack on sale at Home Depot.

We've found some replacements at antique and salvage shops over the years and have finally finished enough re-wiring so that they can be controlled by switches in convenient spots.

The fun part about hunting for stuff is that you can find sets that work for an area, but don't have everything "match" all over the house.

While the electrician was here for the bathroom, he installed a few (bottom photo) in the main staircase and second floor landing.

These look much better.

New Dishwasher

We got a new dishwasher today. It would be nice if the story was that simple.

As usual, it's not.

The old one didn't really wash the dishes; it just got them wet. Not really a surprise.

A few weeks ago, we took advantage of a sale at Warner's Stellian and bought a dishwasher on sale. We paid the extra $100 to have them install it. That way I could concentrate on other projects.

Yeah right.

The delivery guy/installer showed up (on time!) and started to remove the old one. He noticed that the drain pipe for the sink was in an odd place.

As in, it didn't run down inside the wall to the basement. Rather it ran half inside the wall and half protruding out from the wall. Not a huge deal except that it then made a turn and ran away from the wall 8 inches and the top half of the pipe stuck up through the floor.

In the middle of the cavity for the dishwasher.

Newer dishwashers need the floor to be flat, not have some 8 inch length of 2" ABS pipe sticking up an inch out of the floor. Smack in the middle of the opening.

Oh yeah, and the surrounding cabinets were installed before the floor was tiled. So the opening is at least a half inch shorter that is normal.

So the thing had to be slammed like a low-rider.

Needless to say, it couldn't be installed as-is, so he gave up.

So I got to spend my Saturday re-routing the drain pipe to do it the right way. So much for working on other projects...

And while I was doing that, I found what's pictured.

Yup, this is the shut-off valve for the water line to the dishwasher and sink.

Note - I haven't touched the compression nut that (sort of) attached the the water line for the sink.

Really.

The compression nut is just hanging out doing nothing. It's the corrosion around the joint that held things together and kept it from leaking.

So I replaced the shut-off valve too.

And the guy came back to install the dishwasher today.

No problems. ;-)

The Attic Bathroom

This is the attic bathroom. It's the one I re-plumbed before we started remodeling the Kid's Bathroom. It's also the one we've been using during the remodel because it's the only one with a working shower.

Originally, this would have been the servants bathroom, so it's not fancy or big. But it does work. And since I ran new water lines, it has good water pressure and hot water!

Kid's Bath - Part 10

The bathroom is almost complete.  Primarily what's left is some final painting!

Since the last post the initial coats of paint have been applied, vanity was installed, shower door was installed, and the finish electrical and plumbing have been completed.