JRC's Nightmare on Elm Street (lots of pictures)

[KathyJB]

Thanks! Can't wait to see it when you're finished.

[Texas_Ranger]

Re: the sink: looks like some kind of backsplash to me, but don't ask me what kind of material that might have been!

[JRC]

More work on the bathroom today:



That gray paint doesn't come off easily. I'm hoping that the paint stripper will help.

There is also a hole in the wall that I didn't notice before. I wonder if there was a gas heater here originally, or maybe that's where Jerry lived?

[sooth]

Nice job so far! It seems a bit odd that they didn't use a baseboard. My kitchen used to have tongue and groove pretty much the same, but they had it over a baseboard (3/4" x 7 1/2" baseboard with 3/4" t-g) and they just had a bevel on the bottom edged of the t-g. I would guess that in your place, they would have had just a small 1/4 round, or a 1/2" x 1" so called "shoe mold" type.

That cast iron register will look great (or grate, haha) against the wood once everything is cleaned up and refinished.

[JRC]

Thanks!

I can't tell for sure, and I haven't gotten down on hands and knees to get a better look, but it appears that they used the larger shoe molding.

[Vaso7]

My house and your house have a lot of similarities in construction. I have the exact same t&g wall in both my kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms. We also have the same rotary electric switches!
My place is as original as it can be and there is no base board in the kitchen or the bathrooms. No shoe moldings either.
The rest of the house has a massive base board but surprising everywhere the base board was installed before the floor and there is no shoe molding. At places it looks king of ugly as the floor does not meet the baseboard in perfection. I though of adding shoe molding myself but in the end I do not like how it looks and it is impossible to truly match the old mahogany shellacked trim. Anyway, is your house done the same way (base board first, floor after)?

[JRC]

My house and your house have a lot of similarities in construction. I have the exact same t&g wall in both my kitchen and the upstairs bathrooms. We also have the same rotary electric switches!
My place is as original as it can be and there is no base board in the kitchen or the bathrooms. No shoe moldings either.
The rest of the house has a massive base board but surprising everywhere the base board was installed before the floor and there is no shoe molding. At places it looks king of ugly as the floor does not meet the baseboard in perfection. I though of adding shoe molding myself but in the end I do not like how it looks and it is impossible to truly match the old mahogany shellacked trim. Anyway, is your house done the same way (base board first, floor after)?

Hmm, no. I have shoe moldings everywhere else.

Quick question about your rotary switches. How did you remove them from the wall? There are no screws in the plate, and I don't want to mess up the plaster behind them, if I can avoid it.

For the time being, I'm still using the original wiring with just a new breaker box. But, when I do update the wiring, I'll let you know if I find a way to re-use the rotary switches. (would it be considered cheating if I couldn't re-use the rotary switches, and had to use modern, reproduction push-button switches? )

[Vaso7]

If I remember correctly the black rotary switch is what holds the plate on the wall. When I unscrew the black turn switch the plate was removed. It is been a few years now but for sure there was not damage behind it. Those old brass plates were great. Heavy and beautiful. I am still holding them trying to figure something out.
Since most of our plates are combinations (dimmers, plugs, multiple switches) I cannot imaging trying to special order all those combos with push buttons in antique brass so we went for standard.

[Texas_Ranger]

Yup, typically the actual turn key has a screw that holds everything else together. Be careful, some of those screws are complex beasts and impossible to replace if you lose them! And usually there's a spring behind the screw too, so it falls out easily once unscrewed. In my experience the best way to go is hold the key with one hand and the screwdriver with the other (your main working hand) applying gentle pressure while unscrewing. Then turn the key so the screw points upwards and carefully let go of the screwdriver. If the screw wants to pop out immediately hold onto the screwdriver and have someone else catch the screw.

[JRC]

Thanks for the info about the switches. I've been able to take the black rotary switches off of some of them, but I didn't look closely, maybe the plate was painted on? I'll check next week.