It's the upsides you hear about most from Erin and Moeschler, who share an avid interest in the provenance of things, whether of a washer for an outmoded toilet or floor tiles with a French pedigree.
Consider the drawn-out search for a kitchen faucet as old as the house. Rummaging around on eBay, Erin found just the thing. But, once installed, it leaked like crazy, forcing Moeschler to find a later model. Then there's the quirky toilet in the guest bath: "That was a real find, on Craigslist," Erin says. "I drove an hour and a half away and picked it up for 10 bucks. Mox scraped paint off the tank and found out it's Bakelite! It's super rare."
Another previously cast-off toilet gained pride of place in the new master bath: When Moeschler scratched the surface of this one, he struck copper. With the paint stripped off, the tank was so luminous that Erin found herself ordering a copper tub from England to go with it.
Shown: The master bedroom’s new, freestanding source of heat uses gas.
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