The Upstairs Master Bath Finally Finished!

My first thought of how I was going to approach the upstairs bath was a tad extreme. Thinking I was going to pull the tub and install a walk in shower with a glass door. Heated towel rack, and top of the line shower fixtures. The more I thought about it, a few friends telling me to leave it alone I thought best to just work from the tub out. There are two colors of tiles used in the townhouses upstairs bathrooms in Lafayette Park brown or gray tile.  Mine happened to be brown as shown:

before

after

There was quite a bit of water damage around the tub area, which caused ceiling damage in the
kitchen. Needless to say the tile had to be pulled leaks fixed and walls replastered. One of the problems I had in this unit was the original owner never had anything repaired, so all the plumbing had to be replaced. Stephen Lee did the tile and plumbing. Info upon request, hes very good and a perfectionist!

You can't find the brown 4 x 4 tiles anymore, so I decided to go with a "snow white" tile to replace the brown. I was only given two choices, so snow white it was. I thought it would be white enough, I wanted a crisp look, crisp it is but the snow white has a hint of grey or brown to it. Arctic white I really
wanted to use, next time....... It's bright white and much crisper.

The tile will be installed as the original was four feet up the wall. I wanted to also tile inside the linen closet, but found there wasn't enough space to install a metro rack. It just fits and will have to be installed inside the closet, it's that tight. A bit disappointed that I can't tile but I liked the idea of using a chrome metro rack for my shelving. 

The pipes and valves have all been replaced with new chrome p-traps and valves.
The legs to the sink were zinc but were powder coated aluminum. I prefer chrome so I searched on Ebay and found a pair of 1950 chrome legs that were still in the box.

The sink is one I've never heard of before Rheem-Richmond
I love the sink, new faucet and a bit of cleaning, just like new.

 Linen closet before.

After the tile from the walls and floor were removed the floor needed to be leveled and the walls needed to be plastered. Removing the tiles pulled a bit of plaster with it. This area was the worse, a piece os green board and away we go.

Be sure  sure to clean off all the old grout before staring, this is not an easy task, use caution not to scratch the porcelain.

 all new shuts off at the tub.....

















good cup of Joe and durobond......



 tile works begins....

idea board to work from...









rubber floor tile "tangerine orange"

I decided to clean up the existing light fixture and just use with the light bulbs exposed.

new marble threshold

finished bath, new fixtures, plumbing, tile and floor. Went with Johnsonite Rubber flooring. Easy to maintain, I wanted a pop color.

I love the shape of the sink. Just cleaned it, and installed new fixture and legs.

Linen closet after with metro rack installed.















 

tub fixtures (faucetdirect.com)

The register cover and door hinges have been re plated in nickle. 

So nice to have a finished bathroom. Still working on the downstairs, all done with the exception of the vanity (being custom made) Reworking the old vanity.  Will have pictures soon.

It's a beautiful place in the Neigborhood......

One of my favorite rooms in the townhouse is my study. I spend most of my time there just relaxing and looking out the window. I have a great view and can bird watch from my chair. Here are just a few of the pictures of some of the views....

bark

my blinds

lot's of birds here

jeff and kaya

jess, cal and rocky

winter wonderland

Re-thinking the Upstairs Floors.

Well I don't know why I didn't do this earlier, but at least it's done now. And I love when people say, I was going to say something, but just didn't. Tell me please, tell me! At first I thought I would just replace the guest room floor due to water damage.  I would restore the hal;l and two other rooms.  I kept looking at it, asking myself, why would I go this far and restore fifty year old tile?. With that thought fresh, I called my friend Shawn and he was glad to assist. Shawn has done both bathrooms and the rest of the house.  I  ripped the floor and gathered all the tiles to dispose of, he leveled and installed new tile to match the rest of the first floor and second. I love the way it appears to float.So easy to maintain.

The Medicine Cabinets Re Silvered and Installed

Both of the bathrooms had the original medicine cabinets, the downstairs bathroom has one that hangs on the wall, the upstairs bathroom cabinet sets inside the wall.  I decided that instead of having new glass cut and drilled for the pulls I would re silver the original mirrors. Not too many places these days still re silver, and if they do you will pay big dollars. Silver has gone up immensely over the last few years. The place I took mine to was fairly close, but in a bad area of town. (park in the bank)

14808 Gratiot Avenue Detroit, MI 48205-1943 - (313) 521-1888

 I took the four mirrors in and it took about 3 weeks to get them back. Well worth the wait, to have them cut would have been just around the same amount of money, but the glass would not have been as thick. I'm happy with the results and just love the cabinets. I love the old green textured glass, stainless trim rim and tiny stainless pulls.Heres what they looked like prior to me refininishing them. 

 

 After a bit of work, cleaning the paint off the stainless, and rerpainting the inside, cleaning the glass and re silvering the mirrors, just like new.

Re-Plating The Jewels, Hinges, Door Pulls, Register Covers.

Luckily my unit was original, the door handles, hinges and closet door pulls. Even though the hardware was painted over at least they were original! At one time they were nickle plated. The door handles are brushed aluminum.
 Well it wasn't too much fun getting all the paint off, but persistence pays off and Voila!

At the first Lafayette park social of the year I met so many fantastic folks. One was Christian who maintains the Lafayette Park facebook  page.
http://www.facebook.com/miesdetroit
Christian had told me where to go to have my hinges re-plated
which just happened to be the same place I went to have the legs to the upstairs bathroom sink done. The legs were zinc and could not be re-plated, so I had them powder coated aluminum. For a very reasonable price I had the hinges and register covers re-plated in satin nickle. This is what they looked like when I stripped the paint and took them to Gary.

Color Coat Plating Company
355 W Girard
Madison Heights, MI 48071
Ask for Gary 
Christian mentioned, one tenant had their hinges chrome plated and then found the doors would not fit. Don't make that mistake, chrome plating takes three coats.

These are the images of the hinges after they were plated, a beautiful thing, indeed!

Thought it would be helpful to list where to find the door handles, a friend gave me a catalog Rejuvenation. You can find handles that are pretty close, in different finishes (but expensive) at Rejuvenation.com
see the item number and price below.

You can also purchase the door pin stops. I found out that the pins stops were aluminum, when I went to have them re plated one broke, so Gary hit it with a spray bomb. I'll order new ones, you can get in optional finishes, and the price is 6$ so it worth the money to purchase new. If yours are in good shape, but you need rubber bumpers McMaster-Carr  has them on line or call and order a catalog.

If you are looking for closet door pulls, you can easily find on Ebay.  Under search type in : IVES item number 222B15 nickle. I also found another company Kennatrack 60-26, flush door pulls which can also be found on Ebay.