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.

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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!

Laundry Hookups

The laundry room is a mess. I believe the small room was originally the servants quarters because it is next to the kitchen, used to have a "toilet closet", and has a back door so that the servants can enter the house unseen by the owner. This is a feature my parents used to have in the exact configuration - a room connected to the kitchen with a back entrance. They turned it into a kitchenette that opens to a back deck.

The kitchen even has a gate and double sided serving cabinets so you can get your food without touching the servants. Yuck!

The '39 breakfast nook addition has no gate as a "Servant Free Home" had become the norm. What a concept. 

I needed a place for the laundry so I'm putting a stackable front load washer and dryer where the toilet closet used to be.

Adding a laundry requires a LOT of plumbing and duct work. 

From left to right (non-essential in parenthesis) - dedicated laundry circuit outlet, gas dryer hookup, (main water pipes), (2" galvanized toilet vent), laundry box: hot and cold supply lines and 2" drain for washer, and 4" dryer vent ducting to the outside 

I'm happy to have all that done. Boy there's a lot of tubes in there! I'll follow up when the washer and dryer are installed. 

Kitchen/Laundry Flooring pt.2

The kitchen flooring came in. It looks awesome. $4/s.f. 1x3' marmoleum click flooring in eucalyptus color from greenbuildingsupply.com.

It looks more yellow in person

I used a filter to make it look more accurate. 

The flooring instructions say to leave it in the room it's going into for 3 days minimum. THIS IS NO JOKE. It WILL buckle. Wood click flooring takes even longer to acclimate - usually 10-14 days. You should take this seriously and take seriously the edge gap specs. If the flooring has no room to expand or contract that will also cause it to buckle. 

First piece will dictate square. If the back wall is off, then the whole floor will be off.

Seeing what's square

I used this recycled stuff that looks like it's made out of ground up carpet as underlayment. The orange is the moisture barrier that's attached to the top side.

You need to leave a 3/8" gap around the edges. That makes some of the pieces difficult to cut. 

The 3/8" expansion joint needs to be covered with trim. 

Options  

Cove trim

Behind the stove

The wedgewood is in place and working

Kitchen marmoleum is done - awaiting trim

Like the expansion gap, the trim to cover it gets pretty complicated in places

Kitchen/Laundry Flooring

Unfortunately, I can't paint the subfloor under the linoleum, as I had planned, for two reasons. First, it's not tongue and groove 1x4 fir as is usual for older subfloors. Around this time, it was most typical that they would lay down 1x4 t&g and then tarpaper and 2" wide 5/16" red oak. The t&g sealed the floor from drafts from the basement. If someone didn't want to pay for oak, then the subfloor would be painted. I thought painting the floor would be a quick solution with an older look. But it couldn't be that easy. Nothing else in this house has been easy so why would this be?

Typical subfloor 1x4 Doug Fir Tongue and Groove

In bathrooms, they would use regular 1x8, since the mortar bed would seal the cracks in the boards. We have the second kind of subfloor. 

Also, the original floor tile looks like it's lotsa asbestos. It's over burlap. When I tried to pull up a little piece, it created a little dust storm. We will have to seal it and cover it. 

I'm going to go with some type of marmoleum. It fits the feel of the original floor. 

I think this color would look good and it's on sale for $4/sf in click which would be easy to put down.

Update: nailed it! 

Found the original flooring in the dining area added to the front of the kitchen in '39...

Hard to see but it's like the same stuff but a little darker green with a trim strip. 

This flooring I've chosen is an illustration of how I try to improve and update the house while being respectful of the original style.