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Its a 1911 #4

Olde Tub

Olde Tub

Included with our old house was a great old clawfoot tub that was unfortunately never hooked up, it was like a piece of furniture in one of the bathrooms.

Well last weekend in a fit of ambition I decided to finally take a bath, which required installing the tub.  Someone had painted it yellow, and while yellow is a fine colour, we decided it needed a face lift.

When I flipped it over the date was clearly cast into the bottom of the tub, Aug. 1, 1911 (or January 8, 1911).  That makes it almost 100 years old.   Apparently this tub is a “4”

I bet it has seen a lot of bottoms over the years.

Olde Tub

Anyways, after 3 days work and some fresh blue paint, here it is, installed and filled with bubbly goodness.

I can say this for sure, they sure knew how to make a comfortable tub back then!

Add my bottom to the list.

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 02-23-2009 | 02:02 PM
Posted in: Latest Posts | Our Old House | Comments (1)

The Doors

Hang time

Hanging Doors

The Bronx project has stalled a bit the last few days.  I am in the middle of a major Honey-do.  I suspect a few more weeks and I should be back at the layout in earnest….

This weekend I am working on installing a few new doors in what will eventually be a bedroom.

Hanging Doors

The door into the room from the hallway had to be completely replaced, including the door jam.  The old door and jam had been hacked up pretty good,  I think the last attempt at a reno involved axes.  Instead of trying to restore the old door I decided to replace it.  Actually, all the doors on the second floor will be replaced with new ones, but I think I will only have to replace this one door jam.

Hanging Doors

Of all the jobs in house renovating, installing a door is by far the more difficult.  Nothing is more evident that a poorly hung door.  To date, I  don’t think I have done one to my satisfaction.  Perfect door hangage requires the the following features:

  1. Level
  2. Plumb
  3. Square
  4. 1/8″ to 3/16″ space on the hinge side
  5. Parallelism to 1/32″
  6. Precise installation of hinges (damn near impossible)
  7. No play between the door and the jam
  8. No binding between door and the jam
  9. Door will not pivot on its own.
  10. Latch functions correctly
  11. I’m sure there is something else

These doors are all pretty good, but next time they will be a bit better…

Hanging Doors

The outside of the room.  I installed the new jam wiithout removing all of the old trimwork.  Removing it would start a chain reaction of projects that would lead to tearing down the house.  This ment working within the accuracy of the original trimwork that wasen’t too bad, but not perect.  I will blame any error in my install on that.

Hanging Doors

I’d give this install a 9 out of 10.  I’m not happy with the location of the hinges.  The striker plate could be better too.

Hanging Doors

The second door in the room leads into the laundry room.  This one, I’d give an 8 out of 10.  Again, not happy with the striker plate.  Everything else is pretty good.  100% better than the useless bi-fold door disaster that was there before.

Hanging Doors

Hanging Doors

Hanging Doors

I managed to install two doors today, which is a record for me.  If installing a simple pre-hung door, getting several of them done in a single day would be easy.  These are doors that need the hinges and handles installed, and also complete door jams built.  That slows down production quite a bit.

They are done.  Tomorrow I will start the electrical and be that much closer to returning to the layout project.

That is all I have to say about installing doors.

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 12-14-2008 | 12:12 AM
Posted in: 2007 NMRA Train Show - Detroit | Latest Posts | Our Old House | Comments (2)

New Chimneys for The Pit

Late Summer Projects

While I didn’t get as much done on the house as I had hoped this summer, too many other priorities, we did get a pretty good chunk of work done.

One of the last projects for the season was having the old chimneys rebuilt. They were both in very bad shape. One is still in use as a fireplace, the other has not been used in many years. I think it was for an old coal furnace and perhaps a cook stove in the kitchen. It was poorly capped, parged and crooked and was home to lots of bats. The fireplace chimney looked ok, but was falling apart. It was time for them to go.

In June I had hired a mason to do the job before having the roof done. Unfortunately he never showed up for the job and when I pressed him he said he had hurt his knees and could not do the job. To redeem himself, he did arrange for someone else to take on the project, a part time mason who teaches brick laying at a college in Toronto. He came out and agreed to take on the job.

A week later he showed up and with a helper set up scaffolding and got to work. The following weekend I “volunteered” to do the labour for him, which actually was enjoyable, but lots of work. Below is a gallery of pictures of the project.

http://www.bronx-terminal.com/chimney
click on image to open gallery

-T.

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 11-02-2008 | 10:11 AM
Posted in: Latest Posts | Our Old House | Comments (1)

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