The Downstairs Bathroom Finito!

After a long wait for the downstairs vanity, the bathroom is finished. In keeping with the rest of the house I kept the bathroom as as original as possible. I started by finding a toilet and luckily I found the original toilet in white on Ebay, a 1950's American Standard "4043" in mint condition. Just needed to purchase a rebuild kit and it's good as new. The original toilet was a salmon color as well the sink.


The sink I found on http://www.faucetdirect.com/ ,  A cast iron 20 x 18 Kohler, the original sink was cast iron, but 20 x 16.

I tried to save the original vanity, but the formica had been scratched, and faded in areas. I probably  have looked at every known laminate made, but couldn't find the exact pattern. I selected a 50's style boomerang pattern, and kept the doors with the original formica. It's hard to see in the photo but the blue boomerang shape is the same color as the rubber flooring. I like the two together. The handles were original.

the two formica's

I assemble idea boards which helps me when selecting colors and textures. Here's one the threshold, towel bar, rubber flooring and wall base tile.

 









The tear up:

1" x 3" tile floor

nasty!

base was 4 x 4 salmon tile

I had the holders powder coated aluminum

 

Finished bathroom:

 rebuilt fan, light fixture restored

I didn't take any freedom in redesigning either bathroom, for me it was just important to have a really crisp clean look. The space is relatively small, so I didn't want to disrupt that with bulky vanity's. I also really like the vanity, so I had one made to match the original. It took a few months but it's just as I had envisioned, any other might have crowded the space. It works for me, now I just have to finish the bathroom door and hang it.  Choosing rubber for flooring in the bathrooms is easy to clean and I don't have to worry about wear.

 All new plumbing. One of the problems with these units is the plumbing is all starting to go. Everything in this unit has been replace.

close up of the two formica's used

Fox 2 News ANDREA ISOM VISITS LAFAYETTE PARK

Ever Considered Moving to Detroit?

By ANDREA ISOM
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com

DETROIT (WJBK) - We've all heard people talk about wanting to make Detroit a better place.
Well, some people say enough talk already.  It's time to put up or shut up.
As FOX 2's Andrea Isom explains in her video report, they're saying bye-bye to the suburbs and hello to the big city.

Andrea Isom was good enough to come to Lafayette Park and speak to some of the residents about our experience living in the city, and in our case Lafayette Park. We all had fun with the interview and want to thank Andrea for her time and interest. Please take a minute to check out the video. Thanks to all who participated in this segment, and a special thanks to Andrea!

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/detroit/ever-considered-moving-to-detroit-20110614-wpms

Stairs, Finally Stained, Oiled and Installed! At Last

Not an easy task stripping, sanding and reinstalling the stairs. This was a major chore to refinish the staircase, but I'm happy to have done it (now). When I first looked at this unit the staircase could have sold me alone. It took me a long time to do, but luckily I was able to take the planks to CCS and sand them. I had originally tried to sand them on the riser, but realized, I needed to do it right or not at all. So, I removed the planks and got to work.
Here's how the stairs looked prior to me sanding:

The baby bumpers were removed, I didn't fill the screw holes in case I ever decide to reinstall them. I find the staircase to be much more sculptural now without them. The risers were painted white, and the railing was black. I went back and forth about what color to paint, I ended up choosing black.

I worked for about a month striping away, at least it seemed that long.
Once the railing and risers were stripped and painted, I wrapped the planks with paper to protect them from all the other work I was doing. I wanted to wait until I was done with the major work to stain them. I used a pecan stain, it was the closest match to the original stain. Then used three coats of urethane to seal them.

The stairs installed and complete, I'm very happy with the final result.