Meeko moved in this weekend and could not be happier! First off, he has his own room for now...
One of Meeko's favorite things is looking out windows. He has set up spots in the master bedroom, his room shown above and on top of the piano in the music room.
But at the end of the day, Meeko also likes bedtime...
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...
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.
Since I've been trying to parse out the history of our house, I thought I would show you an apartment building I saw in Oakland that is very original.
Our house was built in '27, but had a major addition in '39, some work in '47 (sink date) to the 50s, and some linoleum added to the kitchen in the '60s.
Houses built during certain time periods remain remarkably consistent with the style of the day. It's only somewhat recently that we have favored old styles over new. For example, an original Craftsman house from '10s-'20s would often have "subway" 3x6" wall tiles and 1" hexagon floor tiles. From the '30s-'50s, Dal-Tile 4&1/4" square tiles would be the most common, all over the place, as in this apartment building.
Above you can see how I determined this is a '40s apartment building. Likely late '40s, as WWII ended in '45 and a lot of apartment buildings were built for the post war population boom. Edit: I checked and it was built 1940
Above the late 40s sink, surrounded by Dal-Tile counter top. Tile was most common countertop until '50s/'60s, when linoleum was used with undermount white cast iron sinks, like the kind currently being pulled out of my kitchen.
Hopefully you can see why I think my master bath was done in '39.
Here's the summary:
-My sink is pre-war Crane Drexel. Major additions were done in '39 so I would guess the sink is from '39 or '40.
-The master bath was originally a changing room. That's why it has a closet and a redwood vanity desk. That is a very old fashioned feature more in line with the Victorian era of body shame
-the shower is white square tiles (fits with '39). The trim is like the kind in the '50s bath above, probably popular from the '30s-'50s as it has a hint of Deco style.
-the floor has no hint of tile, just linoleum, which means the floor was originally redwood (probably) like the rest of the house, then at some point, probably in the '60s they added linoleum and mosaic tile in the shower pan.
-the mosaic tile in the shower pan is super '60s. No doubt about it. Blue and green, under 1" squares and rectangles in "random" pattern.
Redwood make-up vanity desk. Relic of first use - dressing room
'60s mosaic shower pan floor
Shower trim and tile looks '40
The knobs on this Crane Drexel means pre-war. The '39 addition was finished around '40.
Looks '40 to me