Redoing the half bath

[Corsetière]

I recommend hitting the architectural salvage places, if you haven't already. It always seems like there are a ton of vintage toilets (boy, that's a weird turn of a phrase! lol! ) there. You may even be able to find your missing grill, too.

[mattswabb]

Cleveland doesn't have any good salvage places. We did go to one in Toledo but they priced stuff as if they were in Beverly Hills.

[Mick_VT]

I didnt notice you had already seen the bathroom machineries site. They are very expensive for complete fixtures, but a very useful resource, and have almost every part you might need.

Both my toilets were completely rebuilt using parts from them with absolutely no issues. You do need to have some basic plumbing knowledge, and some stuff on these old loos is different from modern stuff, but it is fairly straightforward.

I picked u a complete 1920s low flush for around $50 from local salvage, bought a new flush pipe, flush and spud from DEAbath, rebuilt the ballcock and the loo was like new - all for less than a low-mid range new unit.

[mattswabb]

It looks like that's what we'll do. My wife will search Craigslist till she finds the right one. I'm waiting for a quote from the plating company to see if the faucet rebuild will be worth it.

[Corsetière]

I hear ya, Matt, some of those places can be outrageous. Next time I am at our local salvage place, I'll check toilet prices for you. I don't remember if they are high here, but I do remember them having a big selection. It wouldn't be too bad to to pop down to Columbus, if you knew they had the right thing for a fair price.

[phil]

Cleveland doesn't have any good salvage places. We did go to one in Toledo but they priced stuff as if they were in Beverly Hills.

I spent a week there a few years back. I have never seen so many big beautiful homes that needed restoration in my whole life. It looked like they had such magnificent homes but so many had fading paint and just weren't being restored. The brick buildings closer to downtown had such nice designs and features but it was like urban decay had set in. we have areas like that here, East Vancouver. Places with such a rich history but you are scared to walk alone in. It seemed like the police were doing their jobs because people drove so nicely, not like here at all. I went up to Toledo a few times and down to Columbus. GPS was kind of new at least to me and it was weird to be driving aimlessly all over and relying on this little electronic voice for all my directions but it worked amazingly well. I loved how it would correct my route even if I veered off from the ay it told me to , it allowed me to explore without getting lost. I went there for a training course and they set me to work since I had all my tools with me and they got busy. In Cleveland I found there was sort of a little antiques row. with all the beautiful but crumbling homes I would have thought there would be such a treasure trove for house parts.
I found one place that had the neatest old tiffany style lamps, mostly Art Nouveau. they were very pricey like from 1 to 3 thousand or so each , Even still It was amazing to see them. If there isn't a good old house parts place, there should be ! I did see some doors and architectural salvage pieces. It was such a contrast from here where homes are so expensive they are tearing them down just to build larger and to cram in more density. The one and only item I took back was an old radio which the airline baggage machines smashed to bits. I should have carried it on but I was convinced old tube electronics would make the security people go nuts so I packed all my clothing around it. Yea never do that.

[mattswabb]

So some progress on the bathroom. I removed the sink and toilet. Replaced the sink supply lines and drain. And sent the faucets off for nickel plating.

Today we drove from Cleveland to Cincinnati to pick up our new old toilet. My wife found a complete pill box tank toilet on eBay. It came with a nice pedestal sink that we will resell to get some of our money back.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/151577962623?_mwBanner=1

Tomorrow I'll see how the sink cleans up and see if I'll get it recoated or just repair the defects. Next will be removing the wallpaper and prepping the walls. We may re-paper. I'll post some pics during the next week.

[Powermuffin]

Sounds like a great project. I love that corner sink. Can't wait to see pictures!
Diane

[Bungalove]

Thanks for the update. I look forward to pictures too. Kudos to you for not rushing things and ESPECIALLY for not Home Depot-ing your bathroom!

[mattswabb]

Here's the toilet we picked up.


It came with this sink. Unfortunately we cannot use it anywhere so it will be on Craigslist this week.



I still need to see how well I can clean up the sink I'm using. Any suggestions? I tried a hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mix today and it didn't clean well. I know it will need some touch up work around the drain.