Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Decisions. Compromise. More decisions.
That sums up what’s been happening with the NickMoore bathroom remodel since I last wrote about it — and probably why I woke up with The Lovin’ Spoonful in my head this morning.
Some decisions have been purposefully slow. We spent nearly a year searching salvage warehouses & reuse centers in Minneapolis/St. Paul and elsewhere for inspiration on how to return this bathroom back to our version of normalcy.
We’ve seen nearly everything you could possibly imagine rescued from older buildings. Toilets, sinks, clawfoot tubs, light fixtures, kitchen cabinetry, school lockers, radiators, church pews, light fixtures — just to name a few. Bauer Brothers Salvage, just off the Mississippi River in North Minneapolis, is especially impressive. It’s amazing what people get rid of, and I’m grateful that remodelers recycle.
If you want evidence of the axiom, “they don’t make things like they used to,” visit your local salvage center.
We’ve managed to get nearly everything we need for our bathroom remodeling project from what others have discarded. I’d like to think we’re being both environmentally-minded and thrifty. It’s taken a good deal of time, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Fast forward to last weekend. We needed to make quick decisions about plumbing fixtures. I insisted on “new-made-to-look-old.” Mark was willing to compromise. Like Mark, I like old, so we went with faucets and levers with a vintage look. Our local Ferguson showroom in Duluth had what we needed for our salvaged clawfoot tub and bathroom sink.
We’re putting in a modern shower stall, but we wanted to match the other fixtures and found a shower head and faucet lever (meeting modern code) that have a classic look as well.
Our sales rep complimented us for our decision-making skills. It’s not hard when you’re looking for old-timely artistry. When you’re reproducing the past, you don’t have a big range of designs to chose from.
For example, in our price range, there were two classic-looking gooseneck faucets for our salvaged clawfoot tub. Unlike today, our early 20th century ancestors weren’t inundated with a ridiculous number of choices.
Today, I get to see decisions that Mark made about tile for the floors and shower. I let him steer the ship on that front. I’m excited to see what he chose.
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