Friday, September 20, 2013


I had to post this picture of Fie Fie because he was too cute, now, let's get down to business and talk about home stuff.

I have been kind of having some good and bad luck when it comes to vintage sinks lately.


This beauty was discovered at my neighbor's front yard.  I didn't know the guy at the time, but had seem him painstakingly restoring the exterior of his old house one inch at a time. I saw this sink by his side yard a couple of times guessing that he must be planning to put it into his kitchen.  A couple of days later I was walking my dogs and I saw the sink again. Somehow I decided to ask him about it anyway, and turned out, he wasn't planning to use it, he was going to sell it. 

I pretty much decided on the spot that I wanted it. I've seen a lot of restored old houses in my neighborhood had ones like this, I'd been looking online but the price and shipping was discouraging, and the size woud not fit my rather small kitchen.

Later that day, my husband and I hauled the huge thing to our home. It's going in my stash of junk that's going to go in my "new" kitchen one day. 


The sink cleaned out quite nicely. The original porcelain was in near perfect condition with all but one little chip at the right corner. I couldn't be happier. When we get to remodel our kitchen, this will fit right in.


Since our house is being gutted because of a house fire we had last year, my husband and I had been counting coins and see what kind of remodel we could afford to do. It turned out, not much. To put tiles in our tiny 3 by 8 guest bathroom would cost thousands of dollars. So to break up the cost, I decided to do half a bath at a time like the fixtures and lighting, and wait til I perfected my tile laying skill so I could do the job myself. This got me started looking for a kitchen sink, you know, THE one sink that you dream about that the whole remodeling of the bathroom  evolves around? And just my luck, this beauty popped up on craiglist like no one's business, at the perfect timing, and at a price only about 5 times cheaper for the same sink a dealer sells. Albeit I had to drive three hours to get it, it was totally worth it. The condition was not as good as my kitchen sink, it has been reglazed, and will need to be touched up again before I put it in, but I was ecstatic! 

A few days later I announced proudly to my contractor that I shall begin renovating half of my tiny bath. They took out their tape measure and had a look, and of course, it was too big. The sink blocks half of my tiny bathroom door way so that a normal sized human being could not squeeze through it. I had neglected to measuring the sink, of course. No worries, I've got two more bathroom, I will fit it in somewhere, somehow.

Comes sink number three, if I still want my half bathroom remodel to happen.


This was my sink number three, the fairest of them all. The porcelain in the overflow drain area had completely rotted out, so was the porcelain around the drain. I was kind of disappointed at first that the pedestal it came with didn't match the sink. It was not cast iron like the top, so it's a new piece. After a little research I discovered that this is called a wall hung sink. It's got butterfly wing shaped hook in the back so you can hook it up to the wall. It was yellow everywhere. It had been sitting at a junk store's outdoor area for months and months. The seller was aiming to repurpose it as a planter. A month ago I asked about it while at the store, but was mistakenly told by a store employee that it was sold. Last week I discovered that the sink was not only still there, but was on sale for $100. This time even a nut like me hesitated. I mean, there's gotta be a good reason that no one grabbed this guy for such a long time.

Eventually, the crazy side of me prevailed, and I bought the sink. Cleaning it up required some serious stuff, like muriatic acid, which the hardware store employee highly warned me not to use because it could be hazardous when mishandled.  I got phosphorus instead. 


Don't let the improvement fool you. The sink is no where near being usable. I have to have a plumber check out the sink making sure it will work properly, then have it reglazed or painted, install new faucet, before it can be put in the bathroom.  In a year or two if I'm lucky enough to find a business that would re-porcelain the whole thing, I would then just do it and make it completely like new again. 

All this hassel really has not discouraged me, I'm continuing my quest to find a porcelain coating business that can do cast iron sinks.  It's all worth the effort, I mean, look at the beautiful line and figure of these old sinks. There's something in its timeless beauty that modern sink cannot compete. 

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