The big plumb

Last Big Thing that had kept us from living downstairs was the final plumbing. The big push.

We had the new dish washer ordered and delivered. We had the new kitchen faucet, sleek and wonderful. We had a newish hot water heater that we picked up a the builders sale several years ago and new place to put it. We had the original toilet (fixed up), the clawfoot tub Deder refinished this summer, and a pedestal sink for the bath ( found on the side of the road). We even had the very fancy hardware for the clawfoot tub (it cost more than the tub).

We called the plumber that had redone the house back when the walls were down to add the stub-outs and install our accumulated waterworks. First the sink:

Then the tub.

You'll notice it's still missing a drain. Well, that turned out to be another learning experience. This is how it looks now:

And of course the sink, the free sink was too damaged to use, but we lucked out and found a basin to work with the old square pedestal.

Most importantly, the head:

Barkeeper's Friend is now my friend, now that porcelain takes up so much of the bath.

Lets not forget the dishwasher, we've been without one for a long time now. It fits so nice!

Well, that should do it, right?. .. Umm not so fast, why is the sink not draining? We just assumed the old kitchen drain worked when we tore down.....uh oh. Lets save that for the net post. Enjoy the pics.

The Doors

One of the important interior details of the house are the doors. When we first tore down the guts of the house, one of the first things we did was save the gorgeous original portals and put them in a safe place so that we could--one day--restore them to their past (maybe better) glory.

First in line was the kitchen door; to keep out the cold most of all. We started with paint stripper, then again, and again, and then a power disc sander. I counted six layers, two different pink layers.

some of the original hardware too.

Once the door is sanded and clean, it's time to stain (same as the cabinets), add some black detail, and coat with a couple of layers of urethane. Check out the results below.

isn't it Grout?!

With all the painstaking tiling Andrea has done I figured its high time to highlight the fabulous results! I personally couldn't comprehend why she was so particular about the tile placement and type, but the results speak for themselves.

The future home of our claw foot tub!

The fabulous (heated) kitchen floor! Grouting is a cinch, I don't know why I was so worried. Also, Andrea did it all- only a few short months after Liam was born.

The Heat is on!

Now that the walls and floors and kitchen is in, it's time to heat this sucker up! We wired for baseboard heat when the walls were down and purchased the units this last fall. With the thermostats strategically set we will have six different heaters and thermostats downstairs alone. This means that we can independently vary the heating needs of each room, though it does make for a lot of programming at first.

Rigging up a 220V heater.

The new heaters are awesome (after a stinky burn off). I love having a warm downstairs.