March 16^th, 2003

I got my old kitchen sink from Canada. It is three and a half feet long, weighs 150 pounds, and is pretty cool. It has a drain-board on one side and a large single basin sink on the other. It has some discoloration (rust stains) but it is in remarkably good shape considering it is over a hundred years old. I found a product called Tubcote that is made to refinish clawfoot tubs. The sink is essentially made the same way as an old tub so it should work fine. One more thing to do.

Unfortunately the oak and copper toilet tank did not come in as good a shape. I bought it on Ebay from a guy in Florida. Half way through the process he was shipped off to Iraq and his wife was left to deal with this. She really doesn’t know what she is doing. It took six weeks for me to get it and she didn’t pack it very well at all. It finally arrived here yesterday and the front panel of oak is split across the middle and is falling off. I think it is something I can fix but I’m trying to negotiate a partial refund. What a pain.

In other news, I got a Delimitation Permit last week to remove two bathrooms and two kitchens form the house. I’m not actually removing any structures at this point just removing the fixtures and removing the plumbing and gas pipes. I’ve been working on it for a week or so and it is going pretty good. I had hoped to finish up this weekend but we’ve been getting a lot of rain. I’ve done all I can on the inside of the house and the rest needs to be done under the house. That is not very pleasant work when it is dry and even worse when it is raining. I think I’ll wait until next week to finish.

The man who owns the Victorian kitty-corner from my house has been a plumber for 40 years. His name is Gary and he is a really nice guy. On two occasions he has offered to loan me tools or give me advice. I got stuck at one point last week and decided to take him up on his offer of advice. He was more than happy to come over and talk me through the work and give advice. We talked for a while about the house and he said he would teach me how to lay copper plumbing pipe and loan me the tools to do it.

In a month or two I want to start with the plumbing. The plan is to finish that up by this summer so I can start to start to lay new electrical wiring in June. It is an ambitious time table, but what the heck. Sometimes I think I’m trying to do too much at one time but other times I think if I can just push myself for these first two years I will be much better off the long run. Once I have all of these infrastructure type things done I can then take my time to do the more interior design aspects.