Show us your vintage home!

[Big Man]

So you want to live the vintage life in a vintage home? You see that stuff on the bedroom windows? That's ice and its on the INSIDE.

This morning it was a balmy 27 degrees inside the bedroom. There's no heat upstairs in my old house, so this is somewhat of a normal occurrence during the winter months. While it's a little cool (well, ok, downright COLD) most of the time, it sure makes for good sleeping under a pile of old quilts my Maw made so many years ago.

 

[Stearmen]

Remember Big Man, ice is a good insulator, that's why Eskimos build igloos!

 

[sheeplady]

My mother used to say to me: "it's not ice on the windows you have to worry about- it's ice in the walls."
"But Mom, you can't see in the walls!"
"Go start the stove."

 

[Fading Fast]

^ A slightly softer version of Ring Lardner's "'Shut up,' he explained."

My Dad was big on that as an explanation.

 

[Fading Fast]

1928 NYC Coop Apartment Restoration Update:

The Carrara marble counter tops were installed yesterday. They are ridiculously heavy.





And a close up of the marble


Also, our early 1900s (we think about 1912 based on an advertisement we found on the web) Wagemaker desk came. We bought it on Ebay and had a local guy do a "soft" restoration - left most of the patina, but fixed some broken parts, etc.

 

[Bamaboots]

FF, keeps getting better. Stunning marble. That desk is great, especially with the slide-out work areas atop the drawers. Thing must weigh a ton.

 

[Fading Fast]

FF, keeps getting better. Stunning marble. That desk is great, especially with the slide-out work areas atop the drawers. Thing must weigh a ton.

Thank you so much. The marble was a long process. A couple of months ago, we went out to a stone company that had a warehouse the size of a football field with these overhead cranes that move the stone slabs around. They pull out different slabs and you assess if you like the pattern, texture, etc. (overall size and thickness come into play as well).

It took a few visits and looking at way too many slabs, but we knew we had the right one when we found this one. Then, it gets sent to a fabricator who comes out and measures your countertops before cutting. After they measured, we went out to the fabricator to "pick" which sections of the slab we wanted cut for the counters (see photo below). When you are doing that, you are trying to picture the "flow" of the stone and how its natural imperfections will look - took some time. While a lot of work - and we've been told most people let others do it for them - we think details really help improve the overall feel.

As to the desk, it comes in three parts (top and the two sets of drawers) and, even then, each section weighs a ridiculous amount and took two people to move. As one piece, it weighs slightly less than a tank. Could not agree more - love the slide out tops.

 

[AmateisGal]

Fading Fast, love that desk!!!

 

[1930artdeco]

Fad that house of yours will need to be put in architectural digest when you are done! It is going to be awesome to live in. That desk is great as well-I love mine.

Mike

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^Thank you both for the kind comments about the apt and desk. I am really, really excited to use it.

 

[dh66]

Normally I am not too big a fan of marble counters (even less of granite) but those look very appropriate to the restoration you are doing.

The desk is a fantastic piece. I'm glad you opted to leave much of its character intact, as opposed to a full restoration.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

[Fading Fast]

Normally I am not too big a fan of marble counters (even less of granite) but those look very appropriate to the restoration you are doing.

The desk is a fantastic piece. I'm glad you opted to leave much of its character intact, as opposed to a full restoration.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

It was surprisingly (to us) hard to find someone to do a "gentle" restoration and leave much of the patina as the first several restorers we talked with would only do a full restoration. We finally found this firm out in Long Island which entailed a half day round trip by train out and back to talk about the piece with the gentleman actually doing the work. As we were coming back into the city on the train, I was thinking that we are a bit crazy, but then again, if you don't get actively involved, you don't get it done the way you want. We really wanted the desk to keep its "age," but it was damaged to the point of kinda looking like "junk," so we had to do something. It's pretty easy to get something restored to "look like new, " much harder to get a "soft" restoration done.

On the marble, we debated a few countertop options that were of the period - for example, wood (too hard to keep up with daily use, but would have looked great) and zinc (would also have looked great, but way too expensive) - but based on research, aesthetic and budget, Carrara Marble kept coming up as the right choice for us. We did go with a thicker-than-is-common-today piece as it was common "back in the day," with a honed, not polished, finish (also more period).

Thank you for your kind comments.

 

[Fading Fast]

NYC Coop Apartment Restoration Update:

Just some random pre-weekend fun stuff to see.

These are some of the vintage switchplates we are using (solid brass from +/- the '20s) with modern reproduction push button switches.



Some of the "Sanitary Movement" bathroom tile work (no mitered edges, all corners "rounded" so no germs could accumulate) - grout put in today:



The shower arch


And another bathroom wall


And, finally, a vintage "Lightolier" from the "After Sunset" series circa '20 / '30s

 

[ingineer]

FF;
Thank you for the updates.
Fantastic love of details
code worthy push button switches, never knew, replaced here to met codes with dimmers
upscale lamps!
here is what here

the Doctor is coming in an hour, only he is old enough to ring the doorbell

 

[LizzieMaine]

Your switchplates could have come directly out of my grandparents' house. Serious flashbacks on viewing them.

 

[Fading Fast]

Your switchplates could have come directly out of my grandparents' house. Serious flashbacks on viewing them.

We needed +/- 15 of them (some single, some double, a triple and one quadra [or "fourple" ]) and spent a year searching on Ebay and elsewhere because we wanted the milled not stamped ones as they are heavier (the stamped ones are lighter and thinner). We ended up buying about 20 as a few weren't as advertised, etc. A few came out of (you'll love this) a house on the Western Promenade in Portland Maine - a woman had salvaged them from one of those old mansions. Once you have them on the brain, you see them regularly in old building and in old movies.

 

[kaiser]

Hi Fading Fast,

Your tile work looks great ! That is exactly what I remember my bathroom having in the house in Bucyrus Ohio. Are tiles like that still availble today, or did you salvage them ?

 

[Fading Fast]

Hi Fading Fast,

Your tile work looks great ! That is exactly what I remember my bathroom having in the house in Bucyrus Ohio. Are tiles like that still availble today, or did you salvage them ?

Thank you. For the bathroom that I put up pictures of, we sourced reproduction tiles from Subway Ceramics, a Chicago based company that does authentic reproductions - same patterns, flat edges, colors, etc., as was done back in the '20s (right down to the floors being a different "off-white" from the tiles as they didn't have the capability back in the '20s to match the colors as the materials were different).

I haven't yet shown the other bathroom in the apartment which is in very good shape and original to 1928. About 20% of the the tiles in there where either broken or replaced over the years; for those, the Super gave us original tiles he has been salvaging from other apartments in the building as most people rip out the old bathrooms. So, when we have finished work on that bathroom, it will have 100% original tiles, faucets, floor, tub, sink and an original medicine cabinet. We did source some original 1920 bathroom lights - so they won't be original to the bathroom, but will be to the period.

When it's all done, the first bathroom will be a pretty authentic reproduction and the second one will be a very authentic restoration. I'll post pictures of the second one once we start work in there.

 

[Papperskatt]

I always enjoy reading your updates. Thank you for posting.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ Thank you, that's very kind of you to say.