This poor little neglected tub is an almost-100yr old cast iron clawfoot tub from Alaska! This tub has some history, the owners I bought it from got it from the Ruby hotel, on the Yukon River. It apparently came from Denver, CO. I love that it has this history... sure she ain't too pretty, but I had plans for this beauty...
First off, time to grind and sand the crap out of it. You can see someone chose to paint it this lovely LIME GREEN. Oh, and on one side only. Because who really wants a whole lime green bathtub???
Sanding and stripping this tub was not my favourite DIY job, but as with all these jobs - it's the end product that keeps you motivated.
Had to make sure it was a good fit for me. And yes, it's pretty much perfect. The inside of the tub cleaned out nicely with some "Iron Out" - thanks to the Alaskans who sold it, they cleaned out the inside too!
So more sanding, sanding, stripping and more sanding and off came (most) of the decades of paint. A primer made a world of difference.
Then a nice chocolate brown paint to match my bathroom... I've always loved the painted outsides of these tubs.
Oh, notice there is no FEET! The elusive claw feet... did you know that there were hundreds, no THOUSANDS of different types of claw feet made for these tubs? So much that it is difficult to find ones that match, especially if you don't have one of the original feet. I'm still waiting on the feet, apparently the previous owners of the tub had 3 of the. But then those got "lost" as they loaned out their canoe for a friend's hunting trip... yeah, don't follow that story? Me either, but our Alaskan neighbour's ARE a wee bit quirky. So for now, I have the tub propped up on wood. I actually kind of like it...
Here she is, in her new home! We will have some great times together.
6 comments:
It's beautiful!! Good job Staci. We had one of those claw tubs in our first place and I loved the sloped side for lounging in there. Promise you won't be bathing any of the brood in it, those claws would make short work of destroying all your efforts. Your bathroom looks like it's a good size. All in all that's a job well done. Want to see my Italy blog of our trip? I'll email the address if you do.
Very nice! I love tubs like that.
That tub looks beautiful! What a great job you did.
Now, what kind of toilet are you going to put in? Are you going to get one of those composting ones?
Christina
No Marg, NO dogs will be bathing in that tub!! Rubbermaid containers OUTSIDE are good enough for them.
Shanlee - I love these tubs too, they have so much character!
Christina - I have a toilet (thanks to mom n' dad) which is an RV-type toilet, it has a holding tank and has to be emptied once/week. It's glorious! As much as I "poo-poo'd" (ha!) the suggestion and had it forced upon me, I loooooove it. Thanks mom n' dad! :)
Oh and the tub will be soon turned into a shower too! So y'know I don't HAVE to use 50 gallons of water everytime I need to get clean.
I'm soooo jealous....I live in an apt and the bathroom is not big enough for a tub......god I miss having one!
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