Laundry Sink: New Plan, Different Old Sink

After milling through the salvage yards a while back, I posted earlier that I had decided on the concrete laundry sink since it is readily available and era appropriate. But something always felt off about it - mainly how ugly they always looked and how they usually had hairline cracks and would need a special epoxy to fill the cracks and hold water. Since we're not in a huge rush for a laundry sink, we were waiting for one that was cheap or free and looked good and was the right width. One popped up that was a deep single bowl sink and Christina said that it would be enough sink for us which made me think we could fill the rest of the space with a countertop. It would also work well since the faucet isn't centered at 1/2 way or 3/4 of the way on the backsplash. (Centered on 3/4 would mean the faucet would be centered on the second bowl of the sink which is better than nothing). Any double sink was going to look odd. I measured for a 48" sink or 42" sink and there was no clear way to cheat either sink a little to one side or the other to make it look right by having the sink centered between the bowls or centered on one of the bowls.

I started thinking about the single bowl idea again and I would be able to center the sink on the wall faucet (which couldn't be moved without replacing original tiles which would be a different color). Going back to the start... I thought how about an antique sink, but single bowl and maybe not concrete and I searched for '27 sink and found one that had sold in L.A. The picture got me excited with the cool old style of it -

Hey those look like "Carthage" tiles from Tunisia!  The spacer on the bottom of the stand is because the sink is probably 30-33" tall max while kitchen countertops are 36"

The sink has an interesting feel to it. The stand reminds me of "peg leg" pedestal bathroom sinks of the time. 

The one for sale in L.A. was sold but it looked just one I had seen on Craigslist and I checked and it was still for sale and had the cool stand!

I found the sink for sale locally with the same stand for $200. I'm not paying that but it's been up for a while so I bet I could get them down.

View fullsize

I found the sink I wanted and built an old school countertop around it. The red clay tiles are still easy to get. The cobalt blue sink trim had to be special ordered as the inside corner quarter round tiles - called AUs - are only used to tile in sinks which people don't do much anymore. 

The front edge tile is vintage to match the yellow of the backsplash. The original wood side piece was in the living room closet. The wall faucet is still sold at Home Depot. I really like how this looks!

The 30's Wedgewood stove is up and running!

After weeks of telling ourselves we were close to getting the stove installed, we finally did it! Well, mostly Evan... He found the stove off Craigslist from a woman in Berkeley who only charged the manual labor of moving it out of her apartment. It is VERY heavy.  

The space for the stove was an odd dimension: 38 inches. Stoves are not made at this width anymore, but once were back when the house was built. This Wedgewood is the perfect width and seems to be working perfectly! The woman who sold it to Evan said the thermostat was broken, but it appears that there was only a safety button that had to be re-set.

Evan found the safety switch! 

We were also lucky that the original salt and pepper shakers that came with the stove are still around.

Now we can finally cook stovetop meals at home!

pancakes on the griddle :)

More suitable MB sink

I sold the Crane Drexel and got an era-correct (for the house) sink for the master bathroom. As has been discussed earlier, the master bath had a sink from '40 which is when I believe the master bath was created in what was originally the only bedroom's changing room. 

Since the lower bath is pretty good shape and the upper bath, also from '27 it appears, is pretty good except for the shower. To make things cohesive, I decided to make the master bath into a '27 appropriate style. 

Naturally I started looking for a wall sink or pedestal sink. I found one in good shape for $275 from '28 that is 27" wide which is PERFECT. The plumbing fixtures in the house that are original are dated '28 because the house probably took a year to build since plumbing fixtures are installed very close to the end of construction since they get in the way during the finish construction (except the tub which goes in before the tile if it's a built-in). 

The faucets have been replaced but are style appropriate and don't need to be refurbished with gaskets etc. 

A side note - you can see the '28 sink is about 3" below where the Drexel sink was set. The '28 sink is 30" tall (to the flat top surface around the sink). That would make the Drexel 33" tall. Modern pedestals are 33-36" tall. Why are sinks getting taller? I was reading on deabath.com that was for two reasons. People are healthier 90 years later and therefore taller. Another reason is people used to wash up in the sink while sitting on a chair. The sink stopper is much less used these days because people used to boil a kettle of hot water to pour in the sink and use to wash up their hands, face and hair etc. for the majority of their washing needs. Now that hot water heaters are ubiquitous, people use the sink mostly for hand washing and to wash the face before and after bed. Everything else is done in the shower. Baths are less common because it was so much work to draw water for a bath, by lighting the boiler in the basement, that one really wanted to relish in the luxury of hot water.

Anyway I think the sink looks fitting for the house. It looks decent next to the $100 dual flush toilet from Home Depot that I think is pretty awesome.  That's a crazy price for a well made, good-looking dual flush toilet! A vintage toilet would match better, but  we're in California and we have a drought so you'll just have to get over  it.

Next I'm looking around for a good center drain tub for the master to replace the vanity make-up desk. It would look amazing for a center drain tub there because the window is centered on the symmetrical desk. 

HOWEVER - center drain deco tubs are insanely expensive because they are so rare (and so cool). I might have to get something new which is... 2K used if you're lucky. Sigh... 

Crane Drexel Repair

I decided to sell the pretty-cool-but-not-right-for-the-house Crane Drexler ca. 1940. I hooked up the new hoses to the new copper supply lines and turned it on and it acted like it was possessed, rusty water squirting everywhere. I needed to fix this if I wanted to get good money for it.

Off the wall ready for repair

Had to get clever with pieces of pipe and the crescent wrench to get the valves out

Since the spout of the sink is integral to the sink body, the valve bodies themselves are sealed to the body and empty into a chamber that mixes hot and cold and then they water goes out the spout. The valves were leaking where they were sealed to the body. 

Once I got that valve out of there - the part on the right is the valve body that seals to the porcelain body of the sink to go to the spout. The hole is where water from the open valve goes into the sink body. On the left is the cartridge which is two pieces and threads into the main body. At the bottom is the valve seat washer which combined with the valve body creates the "water gate" actuated by a threaded shaft and cross handle.

Valve body is 1&1/4" so 1&1/4" sink drain gaskets work well

Little Vaseline for good measure

This is the valve seat washer. Very warn compared to new

Cleaning out where the old gaskets were leaking

A little pipe thread sealer

The valve body should be tighter to the sink body than the cartridge because the cartridge is supposed to be serviceable so you don't want the rest of the valve to turn when you try to take out the cartridge to replace the seat washer. 

That thing in top opens the drain and was working. 

I got it working! 

So that's how you service a Drexel sink.