My Claw Foot Tub - A Good 'Fit'

Recovered from a field covered in a dozen layers of paint, all of which were permeated by indomitable rust, the claw foot tub which now adorns my bathroom was not exactly the perfect 'fit' for my house. Not objectively.

Fine! I could strip away all of the paint layers, kill the rust and repaint the outside of the tub. Then I could clean and restore the 90 year old porcelain on the inside. Easy!


Still, the following question remained unresolved: how could I make this tub fit in a room that is 4 inches too narrow?

In my previous post, I chronicle the work I did to frame the large holes in the bathroom floor and walls, rough in the plumbing lines and tile the bathroom. I left off somewhere around here...

I deliberately omitted several tiles (see the bottom right of the picture above) in order to leave a hole to receive the front end of the tub.

...and I bent electrical conduit in order to form a custom shower curtain track.

Then, I commissioned a team of muscle bound men to help me 'fit' the tub in place. A cast iron behemoth, this antique tub is extremely heavy. I took some measurements, removed the tub, cut the wall apart - hoping the partition wall wouldn't collapse - and tiled in the remaining area.

...

It looks something like this now...

...

Note the marble tile in the inset for the end of the tub, and the brown tile inlay in the floor.

Next post: Central Air Installation!