Thursday, June 4, 2009

Restoring Bathtubs

As we remodeled Kyle's little cabin bathroom in Sonora last weekend, we took out the old cast iron tub and replaced with a new streamline shower that fits a lot better in the smallish bathroom. It was sad to see the great ole cast iron baby outta there but I have an idea.....of course.

I want to try to refurbish it and use it in our spare bathroom or the cottage at the new house. Its a fabulous old tub with the claw and ball feet and it was made in 1913, how great is that. My idea is a refinish it, maybe in just pure white inside and out and black feet. Then have a cooper rail for the shower curtain and other copper details throughout. I am excited to have a go at re-doing this tub and bringing it back to all its glory. If that doesn't work I will just leave it on the front lawn and plant some half dead flowers in it...JUST KIDDING!!!

There are many DIY refurbishing directions on-line, I trust THIS OLD HOUSE and Kevin O'Connor (even if I am insanely jealous because he has my dream job, he actually gets to hang with my hero Norm), so might follow their direction. I am sure it will be messy and of course I battle with all the chemicals that I will probably be required to use, but would this be a smaller impact than just buying a new one, not like I can easily recycle this tub, it has immense value to me in its age, history and the satisfaction to me to have re-used this in our new home. And new clawfoot tubs go for over $1,700....of course everything I read recommends you do not do it yourself, really hard to get a smooth coat....$350-$500 to have it professionally done, it might be worth it. I have to recognize that there are some things I don't have in my hokey, little DIY repetoire.

Where do you guys draw the line at DIY????

No comments:

Post a Comment