November 2023

Dark Nebula from the CaYuen Workshop.

I'm not a bowl latherer myself, but that is gorgeous! That pour would make a nice brush handle too.

Dark Nebula from the CaYuen Workshop.

That's one beautiful pour, Eric. Love the colors and theme.

Congrats!

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Rodak Ceramics Fruity Freckles Shave Bowl. 5" diameter at top and 2.5" depth.

Since the overwhelming majority of use that this will get is me shaving at it, I'm calling this a "new shaving gear" acquisition.

We actually bought this American Standard "Retrospective" series sink and console last spring or so, for CAD$69.99 (-20% with a discount coupon, so more like 
$56) at the local Salvation Army Thrift Store. I looked it up and it appears to go for something like US$700-$800 or so for the set. Woo-hoo!
I'd been putting off installing until I found a suitable faucet set. I was hoping for a faucet that looked more like it came from the '30s, in brushed nickel to match the towel bars, mirror, etc. but then I spotted this Delta "Sandover" model for something like %40 off regular price at my local hardware store. Good enough for now, maybe I'll find something "just right" in the future. Our house is about 160 years old to begin with, so a retro look would not be out of place.
Hmm... now that I'm looking at this photo, I might swap out the AC receptacle plate with a brushed nickel one.

The front of the console serves as a towel bar, which will go a long way to conceal the pipes. One nice thing about this open design is that you can get at a lot of the plumbing fittings from many different angle.



I had a few installation issues.

• When I removed the original sink and cabinet, I realized that there was no baseboard behind it, so now I have to find some matching 3" baseboard to fix it up.
  
• The vertical metal rods inside the chrome frame had some rusted threads at the bottom, where the feet may be adjusted for length. One of them was so bad that I had to hacksaw off 1/4" to get the foot even started on the thread. I definitely needed the adjustability that this console provided. (See next item)
  
• The floor at this location slopes a full 3/4" lower on the right than the left, a mere 24" away. That is why with my previous sink any leaks from the faucet would accumulate on the right rear corner, not quite spilling over the lip of the basin. The faucets (hot and cold) were getting leaky when turned on, but I could not disassemble them for repair without possibly destroying it. I could not get at the cartridge or any O-rings. 
  
• When we had the whole bathroom renovated a few years back, the plumber glued the drain pipe fittings, (as opposed to using a U-bend trap with two compression fittings) so I could not adjust the distance from the the wall. A 1/2" farther out would've been nice. This required a fair amount of wrestling to get the rubber seal to almost line up, and a bit of plumbers putty to make up for the difference. Even then, I'm keeping a bucket handy for a while.
  
• I still have to secure the sink to the wall with some anchor screws.
  
• We have a bit of blue paint to touch up the marks on the drywall.
  
• Gotta find another split pipe flange to pretty up the hole in the drywall for the drain pipe. My local store was all out of them.
  

A strap wrench is your best friend in a project like this.

Also a basin wrench. (The business end flips over for clockwise or counter-clockwise torque. Spring-loaded jaw locks itself on the nut.)


Bonus if you can actually find them when you need them (which I did).

Oh yeah - the console was missing the original glass shelf that sits in the rectangle underneath. I might just look for a melamine shelf for it.

Next project: relocating the old cabinet & sink to the laundry room, swapping in the newish existing faucet from the old laundry room sink.

*Google-google-google* ... Oh hey, you can get chrome P-traps. That would look much nicer. I'd just have to screw up the courage to irreversibly saw off the black plastic pipe.


[edit - after my first shave with it tonight, I realized that the puddle in the corner was a good place to dip a styptic pencil in. Now it's gone.   I'll get by, somehow.]

Good gosh, now that is one heck of a lather bowl for sure. I doff my imaginary hat in salute.

A Black Friday week purchase that arrived on Black Friday!

Just ordered from Mo's drop today.  Purple soap is really good so jumped on the iris soap.

Didn't appreciate the way they were shipped when 1st seen but I was able to clumsily get them reinstalled to their sleeve. Wanted another sleeve to add to the the slightly less than 3 I now have to bring me back to between 850 and 1,000 of my favorites. Also wanted to try Unum from Mo