Rub-a-dub dub

Chronicling my adventures restoring and updating a quirky old Philadelphia rowhouse

Rub-a-dub dub

Five men and a tub. The big news for the past two weeks is, we got all 325 pounds of it up the stairs. And no one died, and as far as I know, none of them hate me. I love love love this tub. This is probably less exciting than I think it is. It doesn’t even do anything fancy. But it’s cast iron, so I’m hoping it won’t do anything like crack or wear out either. But aside from being the only new, finished thing in the house, it has clean, angular, modern lines. Yes, modern. Regardless of the effort I made with antique doors, this house is not going to be strictly a period piece.

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Now last post I mentioned that I could separate one of my two sinks from the bathroom. It doesn’t look like this would be possible. I might have the space to meet minimum clearance requirements, but the rooms will be small and boxy. So today, form trumps function. But I’ve decided that the closet that I’ll be adding near the bathroom is in fact going to be a stacked washer and dryer. My basement has crazy narrow stairs and low ceilings so it’ll be great to go down there less often.

Well, it’s satisfying to see things start to go IN, instead of out. That doesn’t mean I’m done demo. I’ll be busy this weekend with some carpentry stuff, but hopefully the next one will be a bonanza of demolition. And then I’m gonna have it hauled out and be absolutely giddy to see it gone without having to deal with any of it.

Speaking of demolition, it looks like I have gorgeous pine floors in my kitchen, but there are seven layers of vinyl on top. Seven! And here they are: There’s a hunter green vinyl tile (this looks like dirt or a shadow but trust me, it’s green) then white vinyl tile with pink, gold, and grey flecks. Then sheet vinyl that looks to be very yellowed. Or maybe it’s supposed to be that color. Then grey imitation tile vinyl, then streaky grey black and white vinyl tile, then white peel and stick imitation tile vinyl, then tan peel and stick imitation stone tile vinyl.

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Check in, things should look different next time I write, which will probably be in 2 weeks or so. That’s a beautiful thing.

No Responses

  1. Ethan Giller says:

    Haha, I’ve seriously never seen that many layers of vinyl tile. That’s some kind of record.

    Can I get a link to the tub?

  2. Amy and Joe says:

    Did the bottom layer (adhered to the wood) come up easy? What did you do to get it off?

    • Actually the bottom layer of mastic seemed to dissolve in water! I still haven’t gotten to finishing the floor – a year and a half later there are still a couple stray nails sticking out, but this weird flat kind that bent flat against the floor. I didn’t really finish that job. I have 3 different kinds of old wood floors in this house and every one of them has a different challenge.

  3. […] took 7 vinyl floors out of my kitchen and found old (but not original) pine […]

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