Things I Found in January

Lots of vintage subway tile. I scooped up the busted pieces too, in the hopes I can cut to a common size. A ton of scraping and chiseling awaits. Most will need to soak in muriatic acid to dissolve the cement bond.

These tile are more dimensionally perfect (even edge to edge) than tile that is extruded (when wet clay is forced through a mold) and cut into shape before firing, which is how the vast majority of contemporary subway tile is manufactured.

Really I didn't find these so much as another real estate agent offered me access to her demo debris. "They weren't perfect," she allowed sheepishly, and with great awareness of the vapors rising from my nearly shaved scalp. "There were a few cracks in the floor and missing towel bars had left some holes", she continued without distraction as firefighters arrived to douse my cabeza.

People and their perfection. One dodo chucked every door in his 6,000 sq ft. 1880's Edwardian. "They couldn't be made perfect", he explained. "Is imperfection so bad," I responded, "you'll have a few liver spots too at 120 years of age."

Another client, loathed a massive, original, mammary-shaped living room light fixture. Commendably, he removed the light, packed it securely in his basement, and passed it along to the next owner to re-install. Bravo!