Help Has Come! Brother Frank To The Rescue!

 Thank goodness for family! My brother Frank from Chicago  came into town to assist in painting the downstairs. We spent a lot of time talking about the space in general and came to many conclusions of what needs to be done.
The rooms downstairs are pretty much the same routine as the upstairs rooms, start by cleaning the walls, remove the blinds and remove all the old caulk from the windows and recaulk.

The video is Frank walking the space and talking about what we need to do. Cleaning the walls and priming were the most time consuming, and I still continue to despise painting! The same color Pittsburgh "Super White" is the color of choice for the downstairs too.

The only lights throughout the unit are the overhead lights that are original. I have removed them to clean the rings that are stainless, shown is the nice patina nicotine.... There are grilles not shown, I painted them flat black. 

 



The priming begins...............



Dinning room primed.

Searching for replacement parts, and sometimes getting lucky...Thank's to Ebay, Craigslist!

Because I've tried to maintain the original look, and also wanting to enhance the look with up to date modern materials I spend a lot of time searching. I'm routinely on Ebay and Craiglist, searching the Internet and just talking to people. Sometimes people let me know when something is available, I may have to do a little work but always well worth it. A friend from work and also the person that will be doing all the plumbing advised me of a auction that was taking place. Detroitmetroauctions.com handles Detroit restaurant's that are going out of business.  On it he saw a industrial stainless steel utility sink, which I had spent weeks looking for when I did my basement only to come to the decision I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on a utility sink. They were $ 1200-2400 way out of my range for a sink. However, the bid on this one which happened to be one I had been looking at was at $ 35, so naturally I jumped on it. Off course it went for a lot more but still a steal, well within range of what I wanted to spend. Lot's of cleaning and it will be like new. This is what it looked like before I cleaned it:
Working on cleaning it now, starting to look like like new. Using Goo Gone and Magic Goof Off. It works like a charm, and makes this old grungy sink shine!

Another score was the downstairs toilet, an American Standard 1958 4043 2 piece toilet. The original toilet was a salmon color which will be replaced with white. Both sink and toilet.

ite

The sink is a cast iron sink that also is salmon, I found a white new American standard to replace, on the same web site.

 This image is a sink and vanity from another unit I had looked at. It was in mint condition, where as mine was worn. The vanity top will have to be redone, and the sink will be replaced with the white one shown. It's a 20 x 18 cast iron American Standard.

This is also from the same site American Standard. It's very similar to the faucet in the upstairs bath. I'm going to replace both baths with this faucet.

The upstairs bathroom.

The upstairs bathroom is a complete redo. Initially I thought I would pull the tub out and install a walk in shower. After much thought I decided to leave the tub in and work from there. There was some leaking around the tub, so the tile was removed and plumbing fixed. Because there is no surplus of materials, the association will replace as near as possible. The choice was to go with a white 4 x 4 white tile throughout.

White tile will be installed throughout up the wall five feet.
All new fixtures, pipes and floor.

Here is a close up picture of the tile I have chosen for the floor. I'm installing a "Roppe" rubber raise coin style tile. I've used rubber in my other home both in the kitchen and bath, it's one of the best floors I've ever had, easy to care for and virtually no maintenance.

This is the new Italian white marble threshold, the white tile and rubber that will be used in the upstairs bath.

The legs to the sink have been removed and powder coated aluminum. 

 The new handle is a modern version of the original.  The sink will be removed and I will restore. All pipes will be replaced with chrome and new valves installed along with new compression fittings.

In the linen closet I have removed the shelving and repaired the plaster. With luck I have a chrome metro rack that just fits. The shelves are at the same height, being that it just fits, it will have to be assembled in the closet, but will bring a more modern look to the bath. I'm looking for a crisp, clean white with chrome and a pop floor.

All work and no play makes for a very dull day. Grey Gardens at Lafayette Park

Grey gardens meets Lafayette Park, John and Frank as Edie..........

  

Lupo also comes to visit, all the way from Chicago.....

 Cal and Frank Navin

 John and Frank Navin

First Level Floor

The first floor was done in 9 x 9 black linoleum tiles. Original to the townhouse both floors were done

in the black tile with a marbled pattern throughout. You can purchase today a very similar tile which comes in a 12 x 12  linoleum, it's called "classic black" made by Armstrong, it's their vintage line.  The upstairs tiles with the exception of the guest room (they were pink) were in good shape. Once I strip them, clean, buff and wax they'll pop like new. However, the downstairs tiles were very dry and loose, some were missing. They were so dry they popped right off. John had told me about friends that had installed linoleum roll no seams and how stunning it was, I knew that I wanted black, I knew I wanted linoleum and I certainly liked the idea of linoleum roll. But finding black proved difficult, finally i did but the cost was way out of my range.

The floors are concrete both up and down. Over the years there was some areas that have settled. The entrance happened to be the worst area, it slopes a bit but easy enough to fix by floating a new floor. 

yep, having fun now!

I was fortunate enough to have the same person Shawn Hensley install the floors in this house, and do the cement work. He also did my house in Ferndale, he installed a rubber floor in my kitchen and bath.  When I'm ready for the bathrooms he will do those as well. I'm a bit of a purest and snob about who works on my home and Shawn is one that I'm lucky to have found.

The floor was leveled and new 12 x 12 linoleum tiles installed. The floor needed some serious leveling. They had to float several coats to level.  Linoleum was the right choice in all regards, expense,  durability, more importantly I was able to maintain the original integrity of the design but using modern materials.
The following images show the cement work, and the new floor (not yet waxed). 
I should also mention that I won't be installing any baseboard molding, John and Frank both suggested this to me early on, at first I thought they were crazy, but the more I looked at the clean lines (well I could have surfaced a little better) I knew, no baseboards.

The guys that installed my linoleum were good enough to tear up the ceramic tile in the bathrooms. But when they removed the tile, with it they destroyed the marble thresholds, both of them. I should have told them to preserve them, my bad. One broke clean and I was able to to take to a master at V. B Granite and Marble . Valentin is a master with marble and granite and was able to replicate with white Italian marble. A word to the wise mark everything when someone other then yourself is doing the work. don't assume that they know what to preserve. MIes chose marble and marble it will be.

newly leveled concrete floor

not yet stripped or waxed