Chicken Claws

One of the things I wanted to try to do during this bathroom reno is to practice the three R's (reduce, reuse and recycle).

In terms of recycling, I'll be bringing our toilet to the Architectural Clearing House because unchipped white toilet tanks are apparently in a bit of demand. The vanity was particle board and icky and not worthy of saving. Sometime you just have to rid the world of ugliness.

There wasn't really a way I could think to reduce, but we did buy a dual flush toilet. That should reduce water usage.

Mostly we are reusing. I managed to score some decent floor tiles at the Habitat Reuse store and I love the square porcelain sink from the ACH. The rest of the floor is the hardwood we dragged home from Victoria years ago from my sister's house when they painstakingly saved it from the landfill. It still looks great in our hallway and will be nice to continue into part of the bathroom. Thanks, Bon and Rodger!

And then there is our clawfoot tub that we found via Kijiji. Of course it needs a bit of work, but when I'm 81 I'll need a bit of work too. The enamel is still great, but the outside is being sanded and painted. And this is what the feet looked like.



Since they were painted originally, I was just going to do that again. I'm too cheap to get them gilded at $60/foot. In the end I decided to try a different route and sprayed them with automotive primer.


Already the detail of the claws shows up much better and the chipped paint shows up less. 81 year old paint turns out to very hard to sand smooth but the primer filled them in a bit.

Then I followed it up with a coat of chrome automotive paint. Here they are now.

The girls called them "chicken claw feet", but they're really eagle claws and a common enough foot for a tub. Since the tub will be a soft grey colour, I'm glad I made the decision to paint them metallic. The gloss makes the chips stand out more than the primer did, but it is an old tub and I don't mind if it looks old.

I can't wait to see the whole tub put together. I could use a bath right now. My feet are throbbing and I feel coated in sawdust and grime. It's all coming along and I like some of the process, but definitely not all of it. I'll be happy to have it done one day.