#couple more dirty white swatches and we good to go

[notsooldmadcatlady]

Game named her Cassandra...

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

Something Domestic

Based on this headcanon and prompt by @16boyfriends-and-me

Summary: The war is over. Hawkeye and Liz are now settled in Crapapple Cove and important decisions need to be made.

Word Count: 1.5K

Hawkeye woke up slowly to a crisp autumn morning.  The sun streamed white light through blinds, and he could just make out the orange colored leaves from the tree just outside the window.

It was a Saturday. He had the next two days off and he was going to enjoy every second of it.

He closed his eyes again and rolled over, his arm instinctively searching for another body beside him.  Much to his chagrin, he turned up empty.

Peaking an eye open, he sight confirmed what his touch implied; Liz was already up.  Knowing her, she had been up for hours and just didn’t want to disturb him.  A part of him was grateful she thought to let him catch up on some sleep, but another part just wanted her to lay right in bed beside him and stay there for the rest of the day.

Reluctantly, he finally pulled himself into a standing position. A glance at the clock signaled he had slept for a respectable ten hours.  He should had been embarrassed, but he reasoned it was just his body making up for three years of abuse.

He pulled on his robe and made his way downstairs.  The moment he was ground level, he was met with the smell of coffee and breakfast.  Liz wasn’t exactly going to win any cooking competition, but he’d put her scrambled eggs and bacon against any five star restaurant this side of the Mississippi.

He followed his nose to the kitchen. A cup of coffee and plate of breakfast were on the table waiting for him.  He grinned, and turned to thank the chef only to find her back to him, her head facing a wall covered in paint swatches.

“And good morning to you too,” he teased.

She spun around, her eyes blinking out of what must have been deep concentration.

“Oh hey,” she said, her lips forming a soft smile.  “Sorry. How long were you standing there?”

“Not long,” he assured, before gesturing to the kitchen table. “Care to join me?”

She shook her head.  “No you go ahead, I already ate.”

He looked to the sink. Sure enough, a dirty plate and used coffee cup were soaking in a thin layer of bubbles, waiting to be washed.

His brow furrowed. “How long have you been up?”

She shrugged.  “Just a couple of hours.  I wasn’t sleeping that well anyway.”

His stomach dropped, a sudden rush of worry pouring into his chest.  “Something happen? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she promised. “This wall is just driving me crazy. I ran out to the hardware store this morning to get some more samples, but I don’t think it’s helping.”

She turned back to the wall in question, her body becoming perfectly still, the way it always did when she was in deep thought.

He couldn’t help but give a small laugh at the relief that filled him. There was no doubt about it, it really was just the wall on her mind.

Deciding to leave his coffee for later, he walked over to her and wrapped her in a warm hug from behind.  Her back instinctively leaned against his chest making it easy for him to rest his chin on top of her head.

An array of colors met his eye, ranging from blue to yellow to more shades of white than he thought was possible. There was also cut outs of various kitchens undoubtedly taken from those home life magazine she had been getting from the grocery story.

“What’s the hold up,” he prompted.

“I’m just not sure what works,” she said, sounding mildly distressed.  “I like the idea of yellow, but that means we have to redo the cabinets.  Blue would look nice, but I’m not sure if it’ll make the room too dark or not match the rest of the house. And then everything I’ve been reading says that you should just go with some wallpaper, but then we run into the cabinet problem again...”

Hawkeye listened to her ramble, but somewhere in the stream of words he lost their meaning.  He was suddenly aware of how soft her hair was and how nicely her body fit into his.  He wasn’t too hot or too cold.  The only other sounds were the rustling of leaves and the hum of appliances.  He was standing in his own kitchen with the smell of coffee and bacon and the woman he loved in his nose, and the only major decision he had to make was what color the wall was going to be.

Something bubbled in him, buzzing and light, pushing further and further out until it spilled from his lips in a joyous laugh.

Liz turned her head to look up at him.  “What?”

He kept laughing.  He just couldn’t stop.  Hell, he didn’t want to.

“What’s so funny?” Liz repeated, trying to sound annoyed, even if her smile gave her away.  “This is very serious business, you know.”

His laughter dissolved into giggles as he buried his head into her neck.

“Look, just because I have no idea what I’m doing, does not mean you get to make fun of me,” she continued, her own laughter joining with his as she tried to wriggle out of his grip.

He just pulled her in closer, kissing her neck for good measure again and again pulling a surprised squeal from her lips.

“Hawkeye, what’s gotten into you?”

He grinned.  “You.  This. Everything. Have I told you you’re perfect today?”

“No, but I’ll take the compliment.” She turned her head around, blocking his lips from her neck and forcing him to meet her eyes.  “Seriously though, are you alright?”

He couldn’t stop smiling, even the light concern of her tone made him giddy.

“Alright? Liz I’m...” He paused, trying to get some grip on his thoughts.  “I didn’t think anyone could be this happy. I’m not sure its legal.  After everything...for so long, I didn’t believe something like this was even possible. There were days I couldn’t see past the morning.  I couldn’t let myself because just the idea of home hurt too much.  And on the days I could think about home, I’d think about what it would be like if you weren’t there, and it’d hurt all over again. But you’re here, this is our home, and...you’re worried about paint! I don’t think my life could be any more perfect then it is right now.”

She stared up at him, her brown eyes going glossy with emotion.  He wanted to apologize for making her cry, but he was almost there himself. He couldn’t think of a time he’d been so happy he wanted to cry.

“You don’t mind that I’m genuinely a terrible homemaker,” she said, trying to make it sound like a joke.

“Are you kidding?” he said.  “I cannot wait to pick out terrible furniture with you. Our house is going to be a disgrace to the neighborhood.  People will look at our cabinets in horror.  We’ll paint all the walls orange, decide we hate it and do it all over again, this time in lime green.”

She laughed turning into his arms and burying herself in his chest.

He pulled her in, rocking them back and forth as he pressed a kiss on top of her head. Just faintly, he could feel the warmth of fresh tears on his shirt.

He looked down, guiding Liz to look at him.

“What is it?” he ask, gently.

She was smiling even will the stain of wet streaks down her face.  “It’s just...I didn’t think this was in the cards for me.  Even before Korea, it never occurred to me that this could be my life. I thought I blew my chance, but now I’m here and...God, there are times I love you so much it hurts.” Her eyes grew distant, her smile slipping away. “I never dreamed I could even deserve this.”

Hawkeye stared down at her, a tightness growing in this throat. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but none of them felt right for this moment.

Leaning down, he pressed his lips to hers, encompassing them both in a desperate kiss. He poured everything he felt in that moment, willing himself to drown in it. He could taste the salt of tears and sweetened coffee on her mouth.  He would hold onto that taste for as long as he lived.

“You do deserve it,” he found himself saying. “You deserve only good things for the rest of your life.  You’ve more than earned it.”

He could feel her smile against him before her forehead pressed against his. 

“I think we both have,” she said, gently.

He kissed her again, pulling her up into his arms as he guided her legs around his waist. Blindly, he started walking them out of the kitchen.

“Hawkeye,” she murmured.

He hummed in vague acknowledgement.

“Breakfast.”

He shook his head.  “Later. Besides, I’ve got to build up my appetite first.”

Liz laughed, muffling her giggles into his shoulder as he carried her back up the stairs and into bed.

It really couldn’t get any better than this, but there was no harm in trying.

[morekissingafterdark]

not-actually-nsfw WIP Wednesday # I give up on keeping track

A continuation on last week's whole business because I ended up on a roll.

This takes place after Percy and Jason get back together! It's a whole big thing. @youarestellarverse contains all of the things so far. Someday, I will put up a recap for skimming purposes. 😅

Content warning for a brief mention of hospitalizion.

"Percy?" 

"Yes, darling." 

Percy pokes his head around the bedroom door frame, and finds Jason sitting on the mattress with his braced leg stretched out in front of him and his crutches leaning against the wall. 

"Is there a story behind the fifteen pairs of panties, six pairs of stockings, three garter belts and five chemises? I remember the ones you bought for me, but I don't recognize any of these."

His hands are full of neon and jewel-toned silk and lace, which Percy forgot was even in the box Jason's been unpacking. Whoops.

"Silena's really good at swatching and Charlie likes the symmetry when we're dressed to match." 

Jason stares up at him, scrutinizing and something else Percy doesn't recognize.

"You just called him Charlie."

Percy goes hot from the roots of his hair to his extremities.

"Fuck." He rakes a hand through his hair, his whole body tensing up. Stupid, stupid— "I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk about who I slept with when we were—" 

He pauses. 

Jason's still staring, but there's a curve to his lip. He looks amused.

"Wait. Why are you smiling like that?"

"Because you looked really happy when you said it. And don't beat yourself up for answering a question I asked you." 

Right. Jason is also still guilting himself over the whole thing, and deeply relieved that Percy had someone to look out for him. Someones, actually. Just knowing that seems to make him feel better. 

Percy's not completely sure how it makes him feel— he keeps catching himself moving to text Clarisse another dirty joke, or to call Chris so they can set up another ambush, or link Silena to a cute pair of heels; he hasn't been to see Charlie dance since he checked himself into the hospital again. 

But it doesn't matter. They all knew it was a temporary arrangement, and now it's over. It'll stop hurting eventually, if he focuses enough on the man currently in his bed. The love of his fucking life, finally back where he's supposed to be.

Percy sits beside Jason and kisses his jaw, breathing in the bright blue-white smell. "You're not horribly jealous?"

"Of course I'm horribly jealous." Jason puts aside the lingerie and slings an arm around Percy's shoulders. "But that's their whole thing, right? The polyamory thing? They're primaries." 

He says it like he's talking to a proctor for a verbal exam. Percy nods. "And so are Chris and Clarisse." 

"And collectively, they're a unit, and each primary couple is the other's pair of secondary partners." 

"I'm impressed. Usually people need a flow chart." 

Jason laughs, ears going pink. "I might have been doing some research." 

"Clearly." Percy takes his hand and kisses his knuckles. "It's sweet that you work so hard to understand."

"And it makes you their tertiary." 

Percy's heart stops. 

Jason, reading his mind, lets go and tucks a lock of Percy's hair behind his ear.

"You're happy," he continues quietly, his hand coming to rest on Percy's shoulder. "But you're also miserable. You miss them desperately." 

"I missed you more." 

"No, you didn't. It's just that the hardest part for you is being alone, so it's easier when you still have your primary around." 

It's phrased as a statement, but it's a question, if not a plea. Percy desperately wants to take it at face value.

Jason's still having nightmares, barely ever sleeping for more than three hours before he wakes in an icy sweat. He's going to blame himself for the rest of his goddamn life. He'd probably make himself miserable for Percy's sake, and insist the whole time that it's where he wants to be. 

"I can't let you do this." 

"Can't let me do what?" 

Percy makes a defeated noise. "You're trying to force yourself to be okay with a relationship dynamic you didn't sign up for. We joked that I was their foster sub. It was never supposed to be a permanent placement."

"But if we're going by that analogy, sometimes a foster really clicks and you end up finding a forever home without even trying. That's what happened with Reyna, and she'd die before she'd let someone take those dogs away from her." 

@perseusjackson-jasongrace 💜

Jason smiles, tender. Percy's heart tries to pound through his chest. 

Don't, he tells himself. Don't even think about it. He's just trying to humor you. He just wants to make up for everything. 

"I was a mess worrying about you, and Piper knew that, so she told me they'd rolled you in. When I heard who had you, I slept through the night for the first time since we broke up. I knew you were safe, and you weren't alone, and you were with people who understood you and what you needed."

"Fuck," Percy whispers. "You actually mean it." 

"Yup." Jason takes Percy's shaking hands in his own."Who says I'm forcing it anyway? You know I'm into watching, and I'm into watching specifically because I get off on the idea of you being blissfully, overwhelmingly happy. I want to see you the kind of satisfied that's physically impossible for a single person to induce." 

[queenbirbs]

the way home | Ch. 4 | Edward x MC

Pairing: Edward Mortemer x MC

Word count: 2,308

Warnings: language, violence, violence against women

Read from the beginning or continue on Read on AO3

Tag list: @writinghereandthere |  @not-sewell

------

By the next week, they’ve sailed across most of the northern Caribbean. 

Their crew hits a couple merchant ships and capsizes a few galleons. Captain Delaney is pleased when they manage to sink a frigate off the coast of New Providence, having some long-standing feud with the Royal Navy. Elena considers them to be kindred spirits in that regard. Attacking a royal vessel outright, though, paints a proverbial target on their back. 

They anchor inside a cove on St. Fisher, a hole-in-the-wall port among the long string of islands in the Bahamas. Delaney sends the crew off in a jolly boat to retrieve supplies before trying for Cuba to hide out amongst the Spanish. 

“He’s a moron for attacking them on their own turf,” Robert grumbles as they make their way through the town’s pastel-colored buildings. 

Elena, too busy scanning the shoppers in the market, hums her agreement. The stall up ahead sells gaudy-looking trinkets that catch the sunlight as they swing in the ocean breeze. She wishes she could send one to her sister, somehow. 

The cannonfire comes with no warning. 

Discordant blasts echo across the port again and again and again with not a single pause. Thick, billowing clouds of smoke rise over the palm trees, darkening the blue sky. While everyone rushes deeper into town, Elena and Robert race towards the cove, slicing through the flora and fauna that block their path. Seconds before they reach the flat stretch of sand, he seizes her elbow and covers her mouth, just in time to muffle her cry at the scene before them.

Little Death is keeled over, resting on its starboard side as flames consume what remains above the waterline. Delaney is nowhere to be found. The crew who made it to shore in time lay sprawled across the beach. The whites of their skulls gleam amongst the blood and brain matter coating the sand around them, each shot execution-style. 

“Their jolly boat’s missin’!” a navy officer calls out. “Search the island!” 

“Shit. Fuck. Shit.” 

“C’mon,” Robert growls as he swings her around and guides her back up their makeshift path. “We may not know this island, but--”

At the sound of men pushing down the path from town, he picks her up and bodily moves her into the forest’s thick foliage. 

“What the hell are you--”

“Shut up!” he hisses, shoving her down into the cover of wide-leafed bush. “Stay here.”

“What’s your plan then, to offer yourself up on a platter?!” Elena grabs his coat and holds tight, preventing him from moving off. “That’s the stupidest--”

“I can distract them, give you enough time to circle back and find a better place to hide. They’ll shove off with me, then another ship’ll come by soon and need an extra hand.” 

The sound of a pistol being cocked interrupts their hushed argument. In their crouched position, they both glance up to see swatches of dark blue uniforms peeking through the trees ahead. 

“Come on out, now, the both of ye!” one of the sailors taunts. 

Robert’s expression shutters as he rises to his feet and steps out onto the path. 

“If it isn’t Robert Cutter himself!” the officer crows. “Performed quite the disappearing act on us a few years back. Looks like fate caught up with you, though, hmm?”

“Looks like,” he mocks. Two of the lackeys grab hold of each arm; he bites back a grunt when the officer punches him in the stomach. 

“And where’s yer lady friend?” one of the sailors asks. “Come on out, miss. Don’t be shy!” 

Realizing that staying hidden is a hopeless tactic, Elena makes her way out of cover. Three of the men whistle at her, while the officer leers at her with something akin to delight. 

“I shoulda known the two of you would be mixed-up in this. Sinking a crown vessel, that’s child’s play for you two. Murdering a governor and an admiral is more yer style, idn’t it?” 

As one of the sailors strips her of her weapons, Elena glares at the officer. Though she can’t recall his name, he’s one of the men who stormed the beach while defending the Admiral.   

“We’re innocent of both those crimes,” she says. “Though I don’t expect you’ll believe me.” 

His shoulders shake with a sardonic chuckle. 

“No, I’m afraid not. Yer a pirate -- you only know how to do two things with that mouth of yers. The first is lying and the second is su--”

Elena grabs him by the shoulder and headbutts him. The officer caterwauls and clutches his nose. Blood trickles down his chin and drips onto his uniform in fat, red splotches. She hides her wince as Robert laughs long and hard, ignoring the sailors’ orders to shut up. “You bitch! I saw you make off with the Admiral. You dragged him inside that temple and sacrificed him to Satan himself!” 

“She’s a witch?” one of the sailors asks.

“I thought she were a pirate,” another mutters.

“I’m not a witch,” Elena scoffs. “And, for the last time, I didn’t kill your admiral.” 

“I don’t care what you are!” The officer yanks a handkerchief from his coat and dabs it against his nose. “Right now, yer a means to an end. We’ve heard all about the bounty on yer head. We’ll use you to draw Mortemer out. Besides, what’s better than catching one pirate?”

“Two pirates!” one of the sailors cackles. 

“Well, technically,” Robert says, “you’ve already got two of us here--”    

“Oh, shut up, Cutter!” the officer spits. “Take them down to the beach, men.”

The bickering around her fades to an annoying buzz as she trudges along the path. If they do manage to get word to Edward, she knows there’s no force that will stop him from coming after her. That he would be walking straight into a trap would cross his mind, and then he would do it anyway. Elena can’t fault him for it, because she would do the same. And, if it weren’t for the high probability of being executed, she would go along with it. But she doesn’t want their long-awaited reunion to be side-by-side at the gallows.

She comes to a sudden stop. The caravan of men behind her scowl and curse.

“What’re you doin’? Keep movin’!”

She digs her boots into the sand, lurching when the sailor beside her shoves her hard. Turning to catch Robert’s eye, she snatches the sailor’s pistol from his holster and takes aim. 

“Run.” 

Robert yanks free as she fires. The sailor shouts and grabs his bleeding arm, falling back when the other two come rushing forward. She twirls the pistol in her grip and smacks it upside another’s head, using the momentum to shove him into the bushes. The third man tackles her from the side and they crash down onto the sand. Struggling for control, Elena manages to work her leg underneath his massive form and lands a solid kick between his legs. The officer rushes over just as the man rolls off, clutching his injured pride. 

“Restrain her, you fucking--” he cuts off his own order with a sharp cry. He collapses onto his ass, clutching his leg as blood soaks his white breeches. “She-- she shot me! Get that pistol from her, you idiots!” 

A massive weight crushes her from behind and shoves her down onto her stomach. The sailor she shot slams his fist into her side, knocking the wind out of her. Elena gasps for air, choking on bits of sand. He plucks the pistol from her loosened grip with ease. 

“Hold her down,” the officer demands. “She’ll be less trouble if she’s unconscious.” 

Fear pounds through her chest when the sailor’s hand seizes a chunk of her hair and yanks her up. The last thing she sees is the pistol coming down. 

Underneath him, her body goes limp. He waits a few more seconds before pulling a length of rope from his pocket. After tying her up with a decent-enough knot, he sits up to assess his arm and check on his crew. 

“Oi,” he grumbles as he glances down the path, “where’d Cutter go?”

------

The brig’s interior becomes a familiar sight by the second day. 

That’s how long Elena thinks she’s been down here. The solitary porthole above her head is caked with too much filth to let any proper light in. So, she calculates the hours by the sorry excuses for meals that they bring her. A few crumbs of hardtack and bits of dried mystery meat make up most of her diet. 

Waking up on a cell floor with her hands and feet bound wasn’t an enjoyable moment. If she could rate it, she’d give it a solid zero out of ten. Especially when that immediate rush of panic ebbed to allow a fresh wave to roll over her: she was being carted along to be killed. 

The one plus side of her new accomodations, though, is the cold wall of the hull. It’s as good as any cold compress against her injured body. What she wouldn’t give for one of those ibuprofens she stowed away in her duffel bag -- the bag that’s buried on the outskirts of town on Santo Domingo. 

She hopes that Robert was able to escape. She hopes that he was able to get word to Edward not to come after her. She hopes that when Edward inevitably ignores the warning and comes anyway, she manages to intercept him herself. What’s that old saying about if wishes were horses? 

Footsteps on the stairs tear Elena from her woolgathering. The slow, measured pace of them tells her who it is before he shows his face. 

“How’s the leg?” she asks when the officer steps in front of her cell door. 

Officer Horowitz levels a grimace at her, his lips turning inward with disgust. He drops the wooden plate in his hand and kicks it underneath the door with his good leg; the meager contents spill across the dirty planks. Elena glances down at her dinner and back up at him. “I’m giving your presentation a one out of five stars on Yelp.” 

“That nonsense yer spouting has gotten old,” he spats. “It’s a good thing, then, that we’re about to anchor. You and yer pirate captain’ll be dancin’ in the gallows soon enough.”

She bites back that daunting feeling of failure and settles back against the wall with a shrug. 

“Sounds like I don’t have much time, then. I guess I should come clean with my sins and all that.”

“I haven’t the slightest interest in hearing about yer--”

“Really?” She tilts her head and studies him. “You don’t want to know what I did with the Admiral?” 

Horowitz bristles at the name, but shakes his head. 

“I don’t want to hear the gristly details of yer sick, ritualistic--” 

“For the last time,” Elena says with a dramatic sigh, “I didn’t kill him. I opened up a hole in the universe, and I put him in it.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“It’s not, really. It was as easy as tying your shoe. If you know how to do that, of course. I don’t like to presume.”

Crossing his arms across his chest, he scoffs. 

“Then where is he?” 

“I sent him to his worst nightmare: a place with no one to listen to him. There’s this remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean, about twelve-hundred miles from Argentina. Sorta like The Cask of Amontillado -- which you’ll sadly never get to read, it’s a great story -- but on forty square miles of uninhabited land. And without chaining him up or burning him alive.”

“You marooned him,” he surmises.  

“Marooning him implies that I gave him some food and a gun. But I didn’t. The island won’t be discovered until 1767. The Spanish explorers name it Isla de Aislamiento -- that means ‘Isolation Island.’ Upon arrival, they’ll find the oddest thing: a human skeleton, wearing what appears to be a British naval uniform and a few medals.”

“I don’t believe a word you say.” Clenching his hands along the cell door, he sneers at her. “Yer a filthy, goddamned liar. How are you to know the future?”

“I read about it.” 

Which is the truth, but Elena knows how little that will matter. After teaming up with Robert upon her first arrival back to her time, she found herself curious about Admiral Cochrane’s fate. After coming across a man with an identical rank and surname, she worried that she’d made a mistake and sent him farther into the future, that maybe he’d managed to escape and make something of himself. But the portrait of the other Admiral Cochrane, famed for losing the Battle of New Orleans, resembled nothing of the man she’d dealt with. 

Eventually, one of Robert’s many contacts sent her the diary entry of a Spanish explorer that detailed their unusual discovery. They left the corpse where it lay and pilfered the medals to melt down and mash into coins. The entry was as good as any death certificate. 

Judging by the look of disgust on his face, Horowitz doesn’t seem to find her explanation all that funny. 

“I knew you were a witch the first time I saw you. No matter how you spin it, I know that you killed the Admiral. Watching you two hang will be the highlight of my year.” 

He spits at her through the door and turns to go. Elena waits for the sound of his uneven footfalls to fade before she slumps back against the wall. Despite the heavy weight on her shoulders, she can’t help the small sliver of joy at knowing Edward is near. Horowitz had all but confirmed it, with his gleeful chatter about them hanging together. 

She just has to make sure that part doesn’t come to pass. 

------

References:

A few Uncharted ones, but they’re all very minuscule. Think of them like the hidden pictures puzzles in those Highlight Magazines they always had in waiting rooms when you were a kid.

[paybackraid]

Hero of Ishval

HEY GUESS WHAT I FINALLY DID!! Remember that Ishvalan!Elric AU teaser I wrote a while back for FMA AU Week? Well, I finally got around to posting the first chapter!! I’d appreciate if y’all could read and reblog, or go to my FFN or AO3 pages and review!

Summary: There are many reasons that Roy Mustang is known as the Hero of Ishval. But the very first reason is one that most people in the military don’t even know about. Ishvalan!Elric AU. Big Brother Roy. 

Words: 3004

Warnings: War themes, strong language

The men came into the district, all with not-red eyes and not-white hair but not without an intent to kill.

“No!” screamed a boy, standing before his mother and little brother because there was no father to protect them, not anymore, and the boy refused to listen to his mother when she said to get back. “Stay away! You dirty Amestrians don’t belong here, go back to your cities! Leave Mom alone!”

“Oh?” said the man with the long hair and the grey eyes. “Little Ishvalan scum has a little life to him, does he?”

“Don’t call me little!” said the boy with fire in his eyes.

“I wonder… how quickly can we drain the life from you? You’re coming with me!”

The little Ishvalan boy was dragged away from his mother’s arms like a common criminal, dragged kicking and screaming through the district, and loaded onto a truck.

None of the Ishvalans could stop the man who made explosions from his palms, most were too frightened to try. The only one who did, the mother, quickly had a gun pointed to her forehead and had to be held back by her fellow countrymen. The truck drove off, a child still calling for his mother from the back while his mother cried for him.

“ZEDEKIAH!!!”

Chapter 1

When Roy Mustang was 18, and he joined the Military Academy, his naivety had him dreaming glorious dreams about going to war. Yes, people died he knew, but they died with honor, fighting for their people and their country. He had never really dreamed of becoming a war hero (although some nights the thought would flash through his mind for a fraction of a moment), but he dreamed of going to war and returning alive.

His foolish self, of course, had never experienced the true horror of war, all the blood and death. He had been surrounded by war all his life—the military was in at least one almost every day of the year for the past fifty years. It was something that most everyone was a part of in one way or another, and the military was the biggest employer in all of Amestris, so imagining himself in the military wasn’t so odd or unnatural. There wasn’t one boy or girl that he knew of that didn’t imagine that in one way or another, they would be part of a war.

Even imagining being in the military, his thoughts could never come close to the real thing.

Death was in the air, death and dying, at all hours. He feared his enemies, he feared his comrades.

He feared himself.

This was why Master Hawkeye hadn’t wanted to share the secret of flame alchemy with him. Somehow, Master Hawkeye had known the ruin that Roy would bring with a snap of his fingers.

“Yo! Mustang! Move your ass!”

Roy kicked at the desert sand beneath his feet, heat bearing down on his neck relentlessly. He looked toward the voice—Hughes was hailing him forward. It was mealtime, they were just returned from a mission in one of the southern districts, and even though he was damn hungry, he didn’t even want to think of eating.

“What do you want, Hughes?”

Hughes, Roy’s academy buddy and longtime rival, jerked his head toward the wash station. Roy rolled his eyes, assuming a new batch of nurses or some such nonsense had come in. Hughes was happily taken, but he never hesitated to attempt to set up Roy, or one of the others in their squad. The man made sport out of watching them fail, Roy was sure of it.

Still. Hughes was obnoxious when someone paid him attention, but worse when they ignored him. He walked slowly to the man, glancing at whatever had caught Hughes’ attention.

A crowd of men surrounded one of the flagpoles, all of them jeering and laughing. Roy sneered at them; that was rarely anything good.

“What do you think they got ahold of, a nice t-bone?” Hughes wondered loftily, turning to Roy.

“I don’t know, man, I was on the same mission as you. Come on. If they’re all busy with this, I bet the line’s clear and we get first pick.”

Hughes grinned and laughed, hooked an arm around Roy, and lead him toward the mess.

Roy and Hughes beat a hasty retreat when the mess started filling. Most of the men had appeared to grow bored of whatever had kept their attention, and now wanted to appease their angry stomachs. Hughes carried a napkin full of what could best be called dry gruel. It was the sort of junk you could only stomach a little at a time; Roy hadn’t been able to finish his, and it got too crowded for Hughes to finish. They chatted as they walked—well, Hughes chatted, while Roy walked alongside and listened halfheartedly.

Roy glanced back to the flagpole as they walked past, the same place all those men had been crowding around earlier. A few remained, but most had disappeared into the mess. Somewhere near the ground there was a red swatch of fabric and a little foot, but Roy couldn’t make much out of that. Some of the guys made a habit of bullying some of the younger ones. Maybe they had got ahold of some poor bastard who made some small mistake. It wouldn’t be the first time.

There were some quick words from the crowd, words that he didn’t recognize and when he glanced at Hughes, he found that he hadn’t either. He knew some of the others spoke Aerugan, Cretan, or even the occasional Drachman—since they were surrounded on all sides by these great nations, it made sense for someone on their side to speak it.  It was possible that it was one of those who spoke foreign tongue being tormented, but Roy doubted it. Some of those words sounded sort of like Xingese.

Then, a loud call, a sharp cry, and a child’s voice: “No, No!! Mama!!”

Beside him, Hughes stiffened, his eyes narrowing, and Roy felt a shudder pass through him. What was a child doing here? No one in their right mind would sneak their child into the middle of an active warzone. The only other possibility was—

Yes, they realized as they approached. A little, Ishvalan child. No more than six.

It was a boy, very small. He had shaggy white hair and piercing red eyes, skin darker than the sand around them. He was covered in a red shawl, and wore no shoes on his little feet. His eyes darted all over the place, looking for an escape, but Roy quickly realized that the poor child had been bound to the flagpole.

What the hell was he doing here?

“Awww, what’s the matter, you baby? Are you gonna cryyyy for your mooommmyyyyy? Go ahead, see if she can hear you.”

Oh, and of course, why was Roy not surprised? Solf J. Kimblee, the truest psychopath in the entire military, was leading the show.

The kid blinked his eyes hard and sniffed hugely, swallowing back any tears that were left. He looked like he was trying damn hard not to cry—like he was trying to be stronger than Kimblee, stronger than what was happening.

“Kimblee,” Roy said, grabbing the Crimson Alchemist’s shoulder and tearing him from his victim. “Leave him alone, he’s just a kid.”

Kimblee tore his shoulder from Roy’s hand, glaring at him. “What do you want, sand-fucker? You’re apart of this war too, what’s one brat to you?” Kimblee scuffed his boot into the sand, kicking some up right into the kid’s face. The boy squeezed his eyes shut in a vain attempt to stop the sand from getting into his eyes, grimacing and turning away.

Roy scoffed, but didn’t otherwise react to the insult. He’d been called it before, and it had stopped affecting him. It first started in the military academy, when he’d been surrounded by people hardly out of high school (if they had even gone) who were still practically children. He came to the aide of his now-friend Heathcliff Erbe, and from then on, became known as a sand-fucker—an Ishvalan sympathizer.

If the opposite of being a ‘sand-fucker’, was being Kimblee, then he didn’t mind being a sand-fucker at all.

“Where did you get the kid? He doesn’t belong here.”

“Plucked the brat fresh from his mommy’s arms. He had a couple things to say, and I wanted to, uh…” Kimblee laughed, “teach him about his betters.”

“His betters? Who do you think—”

“Mustang! Kimblee!”

Roy flinched and glanced over his shoulder to see a general approaching looking unamused. Roy and Hughes snapped into a salute, and with a little reluctance, Kimblee did too. General Raven inspected the boy bound to the flagpole, then ignored him and turned on the two soldiers. “What are you doing, lollygagging?  If you’ve got time to start arguments, you’ve got time to clear the ten o’clockers for a lunch break. March! Both of you!”

Mustang scowled inwardly but kept his face impressively blank. Seven o’clock guard. Was there anything less interesting? He glanced down to the kid, who glared all around at everyone he could see, offering no warmth or anything. Roy smirked to himself just a little. He was quite the kid. “Yes, sir.”

Once night rolled around, the entire camp fell into almost total silence. The only ones still awake and about were the night guards, who only watched the perimeter and had no care for the happenings inside its borders, and the boy, who was silent with his tormentors no longer about.

It was this fact alone that allowed Roy to sneak out of his tent at half past pain-in-the-ass o’clock, canteen around his neck and napkin of not-so-goodies in hand. His tent wasn’t far from the flagpole, so it only took ten silent seconds to creep across the camp to the little boy.

He couldn’t, in his heart, leave this boy to his fate. He knew that no one had fed the poor thing, or even let him off to relieve himself, and no one had tried to shade him from the unrelenting desert sun. If he wasn’t sunstroked when Roy got to him, he would be surprised.

“Kid. Hey… kid, wake up,” Roy said under his breath, crouching beside the boy. The kid’s neck was craned awkwardly forward, like he had fallen asleep like that. He had reason to suspect that the kid wasn’t asleep at all, but he didn’t want to startle him.

Indeed, the kid quickly shot his head up, eyes bleary. He pressed back against the flagpole and glared at him weakly. “Go away.”

Roy chuckled a little and sat beside him, crossing his legs to try and appear as friendly as possible. The poor kid had had enough fright in this place. “You won’t say that when you see what I’ve got for you.”

That piqued the kid’s interest for a moment, nervous curiosity flooding into those crimson depths. He flickered his eyes from the ground up to Roy, lowered his head to his toes, then hesitantly wondered, “...what?”

“Shh, you have to stay quiet. We could both get in trouble if we’re not careful. Are you hungry?”

The boy nodded blearily, and Roy knew with the flush in his cheeks that this was true. He was probably starving. He didn’t know when the kid had been collected, but it was probably at least since then when he last ate.

Roy set the napkin down in front of the kid, revealing its contents. It wasn’t the best stuff, and if he had better he’d give it to him, but it really was all he had for today, and he couldn’t go stealing rations, not just for a little kid. “Here. Open your mouth.”

“Do…” The kid coughed and opened his mouth, licking his dry lips. “D’you have any water…? Please…”

“They… haven’t even given you water? All day?”

“No…” the boy croaked. “You have some, right?”

Roy’s heart constricted for a moment, then he sighed and stooped his head, grabbing for the strap of his canteen. “Yeah. I have some. Move your head away from the pole.”

The boy did, so Roy unscrewed the canteen and cupped his head. He pressed the canteen to his lips and tilted back. Water spilled from the corners of his lips, but he didn’t seem to mind, drinking greedily. When the canteen was pulled away, he licked at the water on his face.

“Ready for food?”

“Yeah.” The boy opened his mouth as he had asked earlier, and Roy patiently fed him everything that Hughes, bless his soul, had saved.

The night passed on in silence while Roy stayed by the boy’s side. He noticed halfway through what barely constituted a meal that the kid was shivering mightily. The kid must have been freezing cold after he spent all day burning to a crisp in the sun, and then hastily being introduced to the chill of the night air. Whatever skin was burnt, which had to be everything exposed, had to be horribly irritated.

“Are you cold?”

The boy shivered again, and through the shiver Roy noticed a very small nod. Yeah, the poor kid had to be freezing.

He slowly unbuttoned his jacket and slid it off his shoulders, pulling it around to lay over the boy. His little naked toes stuck out of the bottom, but he wiggled around a little and crossed his legs beneath the fabric, covering his chilled toes.

“...Thank you,” he said. His voice sounded better now that he got some water in him, at least. More like a kid and less like a decrepit old person.

Roy shrugged awkwardly; he had never been good at taking thanks and he doubted that he ever would be. “Sure,” he said, finding his feet. The kid was taken care of, at least, and Roy couldn’t do anything more for him without running the risk of getting in trouble. He could check on him again in the morning.

“W—wait!” the boy cried when Roy stood, looking up at him with nervous red eyes. When Roy looked back, he looked down to his feet, as if he was ashamed of his outburst.

“...What?”

“Don’t…” The kid struggled with his reservations for a moment, kicking at the fabric of the coat. “Don’t go.”

Roy stood by, blinked once, twice, three times. He didn’t know… what to say. An Ishvalan kid asking an Amestrian soldier to stay by him? He supposed that he had only been mistreated since he had arrived, and Roy was probably the first friendly face he’d seen all day.

But he didn't really have much of a choice. He was already pushing it, being out here past night bell without direct orders. He couldn’t stay out here much longer without facing possible consequences.

He opened his mouth to respond truthfully—I have to, I can’t stay, go to sleep, you’ll be fine—just in time for the child to whisper, “please, please don’t go.  Please don’t leave me alone. The other soldiers, they’ll come back, they don’t like me. They… they hurt me and spit on me, and what if they come back and do it again? Please…”

Roy felt each separate word like a slap to the face, and looking to his face, desperate and frightened but willing to trust him, might as well have been a sucker punch. Roy had always been a sucker for the underdog, a sucker for kids like this one. He was no good with them—being raised in a brothel didn’t help matters, especially since when he did go to school, he stuck out like a sore thumb because of his slanted eyes and his upbringing, and it set him very far from kids his own age—but that didn’t stop him from sympathizing with them, from wanting to protect them and from never wanting to see the exact face this little boy was making…

He cursed to himself, quietly enough the child didn’t hear. His mind was made up before he was even aware of it. And screw anyone who said even a word of it in the morning.

He turned back to his tent without a word to the boy. If he was going to be sitting outside all night long, he might as well make himself comfortable, make it more bearable.

He collected his sleepsack and pillow, ignored the grunt of confusion from one of the bunks on the other side of the tent, and stepped back outside. He ignored all thoughts of foreboding and instead looked to the child, who looked even more defeated than before. Perhaps a word in before he left would have been good…

Oh well. Perhaps next time. It was too late now. He approached the boy who stared down at his toes, still cloaked in Roy’s blue jacket, and scuffed a little sand by him so he knew he was there.

The boy started and looking up to him, clearly expecting some sort of reprimand judging by the fright filling his eyes. The fear in them dulled and surprise flitted in when he recognized Roy again and saw the sack in his arms. He didn’t say a word when Roy turned and sat beside the boy, leaning as much of his shoulder into the pole as he dared, and he didn’t say a word when Roy shook out his sleep sack and laid it over both their laps, nor when he fitted his pillow behind him against the pole to act as a cushion.

In fact, he didn’t even say a word when Roy put his arm around the kid and told him, “go on to sleep, kid” and then leaned his head back like he would fall asleep right then.

The only other movement, then, that passed between them was when the boy, oh so cautiously, leaned his head into his companion’s side, and when Roy couldn’t fight back the smile in response.

[frostedkookie]

oblivion | pt.1

(n.) the state of being unaware of what is happening around you

pt.1

‣ Words: 6,037

‣ Genre: Jungkook!Black Mirror/Future Au, NamjoonxReader smut

‣ Summary: In this futuristic world, why have your own emotions when you can easily take someone else’s?

‣ A/N: I am so obsessed with this story guys it’s not even funny. This isn’t really a NamjoonxReader story, I just put Namjoon’s character in here to help with the plot! This story is inspired by… We Happy Few, Black Mirror, SyFy’s Alice, Tinder 2.0 by @tayegi, Block B’s Nalina, and a whole lot of weird from my brain.

You roll over in your bed, groaning as the peppy alarm tone from your handheld chirps. It sounds like a bird, although much more artificial and mechanic. You listen to the chirruping for a few more seconds; maybe if you just lay there and do nothing, it will all stop and you’ll magically have two more hours to sleep before work.

The chirps continue.

You grab your thin, see through handheld from the bedside table and light it up, the alarm options immediately brightening the rectangle of glass. Pressing snooze, you try to roll back over in your bed, but the mechanic birds have done their job: you’re unable to fall back asleep.

Groaning, you click the shower button on your handheld, hearing the warm spray of water start up from the next room over. You watch the bathroom door until steam starts to roil from beneath, and your bladder starts to groan. Hopping out of your warm cocoon of covers, you press the temperature button on your handheld down a few notches and walk into your, now, sauna like bathroom, immediately heading for the toilet. Once you’d wiped and flushed, you stripped away the large nightshirt you were wearing and the matching short shorts, the silky fabric falling into the dirty clothes hamper gracefully.

If you weren’t already awake, the warm jet of water from the multiple shower heads lining the shower gave you a sudden shock. You rubbed some of the water on your face, washing away the rest of your night’s sleep.

You pressed the shampoo button on the keypad installed in the wall of the shower, and placed your other hand under the small cutout beside it where your shampoo would be dispensed. You’d learned after multiple attempts, begrudgingly, that the shampoo dispensed rapidly as soon as you pressed the button on the keypad.

You lathered your bright dyed burgundy hair in a cloud of lavender smelling suds, basking in the feel of your fingertips massaging into your scalp. Once you’d rinsed and conditioned, you pressed the button on the keypad for the soap, and flinched as multiple streams of lemon-esque, liquid soap spurted from the facets lining the walls of the shower.

You lathered your whole body carefully, taking your time to massage the soap into your limbs. You felt sore and achy, although you couldn’t remember doing anything strenuous the day before, besides your daily walk on the treadmill after work.

Once the shower had powered off – set automatically for fifteen minutes to conserve water – you wrapped your body in a large, fluffy towel and set about the strenuous process of drying your hair. Once the burgundy mass was dried, you stuffed it into a chignon-like bun on the top of your head, leaving a few small strands to hang loose around your face.

You held your toothbrush under the dispenser in the wall by the sink, setting out to clean your mouth before applying your makeup. When the paste was rinsed from your mouth, you expertly painted your face in elaborate colors and schemes. You liked wearing your foundation a little darker than the norm – most women your age preferred the ghostly white shade to allow the bright red and pinks of their rogue to stand out. You, however, stuck to the more natural side, choosing instead to highlight your face with an array of eyeshadows and lipsticks. Today, you applied a sea foam green palette to your eyes, basing it with a shimmering silver eye liner and green lashes to stand out against your blush. Your bright blue lipstick was one you’d picked up the day before: a new spring collection you just couldn’t wait to get your hands on.

You pressed the button for your coffee pot on your handheld, and after you were clad in your normal blush pink blouse and white skirt you wore to work, you were led into the kitchen by the savory smell of roasted coffee beans. Popping an egg and bacon package into your automatic cooker, you sipped your freshly poured mug of coffee and glanced at your handheld, trying to sneak a peek at the social streams flowing through before you’d have to leave for work.

When your eggs and bacon were settled happily in your stomach, you grabbed the little glass jar of Joy pills on top of the counter and popped one of the dusty pink capsules into your mouth, swallowing it down with your last swing of coffee.

You’d been taking the Joy pills for almost a week now, and you could see your days already brighter than before. The Joys would be something that stayed in your life, if nothing else. Usually, the Ez’s were in liquid form, but your friend Jimin had scored you a test trial of the new pill prototypes, and you were in heaven.

You smiled down at your handheld, letting it lock itself and then placing it into your work bag. You grabbed your key fob, pressed the automatic button ignition button to have your module started up before you reached it in the driveway. The module settings immediately lit up your handheld, and you dug it out of the bag to crank the heater on in the module. Even though spring was fast approaching, the morning air was still nippy, and your arms tended to have bad circulation in the cold.

As you walked briskly towards your module, your pink pumps clinked against the sidewalk: the only sound heard on this quiet Monday morning. Your grey two-seater was perched excitedly in the drive, right where you’d left it the night before. It was a tiny thing, something your mother had complained about not being suited for a family. When you bought it as a teenager, however, you hadn’t been thinking of the future family you’d have, and have to transport around. Now, however, with your dating age rapidly coming to termination, you were going to have to desperately start looking for a long time match.

“Good morning, Y/N. Where will we be going today?” The automated voice of your module sounded cheerily through the speakers as you sat down. You placed your work bag into the passenger seat and buckled before replying.

“To work, please,” you replied

“To work it is. What would you like me to play on the radio to make your ride more comfortable?” The module began pulling out, letting you recline your seat back slightly and stare out the window as it began the short commute to the module parking deck beside your building.

“Play the news, please,” the local news channel started up immediately; you found that taking a Joy in the morning made listening to the news much more enjoyable.

“And lastly, we are proud to announce that ZICO company is placing on the market for sell, starting next week, a whole new collection of Spring Emotions that will sure fire kick start your new season. Those of which include, Euphoria, Fascination, Meditation, and Innocence. Shipments of the new Emotions will begin today! We are so pleased with the satisfaction ZICO provides this great nation.” You listened intently as the President continued making her morning speech. Her gravelly voice flitted through your radio, but you couldn’t contain your excitement. There hadn’t been a new shipment of Ez’s on the market since summer, and with Jimin owning one of the largest local Hot Bars, you were sure to be able to try at least a couple early.

“Thank you for listening to the daily Presidential address. And remember, equality is for us all,” the radio clicked off immediately, ending the local broadcast and the news for the day. You started to ask your module to play some classical music for the rest of the ride, until you realized the module was parking itself in its normal spot in your company’s deck.

It shut itself off after parking, ejecting the fob into your waiting hand and closing the door after you’d stepped out, locking the doors with a quick swipe of your thumbprint.

Your walk into the office was a bit louder than usual. The automatons in the shape of birds had sprung out of their nests and were occasional swooping through the air to let out beautiful, electronic music. Just as you were about to step up to the stairs, a swatch of dingy cloth caught your eye near the base of the building. Peering closer, you saw the humped over shape of a women, obviously homeless, with a paper cup held out in her hand.

The Joy was still coursing through your system, making your heart light and airy. Eagerly, you walked over to the women, giving a small pat to the black dog you noticed was sitting beside her. You dropped a small coin in the cup, gave her a genuine smile, and turned to head into work.

Your office was already a buzz with life with you finally reached your desk. You’d worked at ZICO Light and Electricity for nearly five years, and every day you dreaded coming to work. However, in the last week, the new Joy pills made you smile brightly at the thought of climbing behind your desk and getting to work.

“Hey, Y/N!” You heard a bright voice call from the top of the partition the separated your cubicle from the one directly to your left. Glancing up, you saw your coworker, Taehyung, smiling down at you brightly, his chin resting on his crossed arms. The few strands of dyed mint hair in his bangs flopped nonchalantly into his heavily kohled eyes.

“Good morning, Taehyung,” you smiled cheerily up at him. While you weren’t sure how much you trusted your coworker, you couldn’t help but admit that his happy-go-lucky personality always seemed to brighten up the workplace. However, his obnoxious reputation of being a player was something that made you keep your guard up.

You could feel the effects of the Joy slowly start to dwindle as your mind wandered to Taehyung’s social stream from the night before. You’d, as always, given his stream a 10 rating, although you weren’t necessarily sure you thought that highly of the alluded threesome he was going to be having after his raging party, one of the many for the week.

You couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be at one of his parties, however. Your mind teased the idea of shooting back so many different kinds of Ez’s with Taehyung and your friends, you’d be in a cloudy, drunken haze through the next morning. Sometimes Taehyung would come into work still drunk from his dozens of shots of Ez’s, and you’d sit and ponder how it would feel.

His feed was always full of slightly blurry photographs, the most brilliant things in the photographs being the dozens of shots of Ez’s held up. Last night, you’d skimmed through his make out session with girl one, watched him smile with his close friend Yoongi, and then make out with girl two. There were a few photos of him with both girls, wrapped up in them in an array of too short skirts and colored shots, before his feed abruptly ended for the night.

No matter how blurry or helter-skelter Taehyung’s feed was, it still earned him a 9.7 rating, something you could only dream of having.

“Y/N, did you hear me?” Taehyung asked, the kohl around his narrowed eyes making the slits looking even thinner. You jerked to attention, smiling sheepishly.

“I’m so sorry, Taehyung. I didn’t get much sleep last night. What did you say?”

“I was just telling you how great those eggplant parmesan puffs looked that you shared. I rated them a 10. You’ll have to give me the recipe for them, or bring some into the office sometime.” Taehyung smiled.

“Oh, of course!” you gasped, laughing and mentally trying to clear your calendar. If you skipped your yoga class that Thursday, you could have the puffs baked for Friday. You almost giggled out loud at the thought of your rating going up by the weekend. “I’ll see if I have some time to bring them in soon.”

“Great, I can’t wait.” Taehyung ducked his head back down into his cubicle, just as the buzzer sounded for the workday to begin. You heard the simultaneous clicking of computer mice as your coworkers around the office began their day.

You worked continuously until your lunch break, as you were supposed to. The buzzer sounded, and the whole office seemed to sigh with relief like one giant, exhausted entity. Grabbing a small, pre-packaged salad out of the small fridge below your desk, you choose to stay in your cubicle instead of heading down to the cafeteria.

Munching on the salad thoughtfully, your mind once again trailed back to Taehyung and his many partying antics. What would it take for you to be one of those girls in the photos with him? Of course, you’d flown through their feeds, looking at their lean bodies and symmetrical faces with extra scrutiny. They’d both been 9.6’s.

Glancing down at the salad you were eating, your stomach groaned. Ever since you’d posted a bikini picture the following summer, and received a 4.5 rating on the photo overall, you’d been desperately trying to control your figure and watch what you ate, hoping to be in shape by this coming summer. So far, the progress was minimal, and you were now shopping for cute, covered one pieces you could flounce in around the pool.

“So, Y/N, you going to any parties tonight?” Taehyung asked, announcing himself at the top of your cubicle by his question. You glanced over at him, smiling even though the Joy pill was waning.

“I might go to a Hot Bar later. My friend owns one close to my house,” you replied, turning back to scroll through the swim suit collections.

“Oooh,” Taehyung whistled low through his teeth. “What are you getting?”

“Patience, so I’ll be able to withstand work this up coming week,” you lied.

“I heard Patience doesn’t last very long,” Taehyung said, more to himself then to you. You ignored his comment, casting him one last smile as the buzzer sounded to return to work. You were distracted during work, however, thinking of your upcoming trip to the Hot Bar, and the new Ez’s that would be shelved soon.

The Hot Bars had always been a thing, although they didn’t always sell Ez’s. Ever since the invention of the Ez’s, however, the Hot Bars began popping up everywhere, seemingly on every street corner ever since Woo Jiho had inherited his father’s company, and made the family dream a reality.

His parents had been pharmacists, met and fallen in love during school. They’d made their fortune, and given the Woo name a spot in history books, when they’d developed the first hypersensitive vitamin supplements that enhanced certain emotions within the human body, and thus blocking out everything else but that feeling. However, that was back in your parents’ early years. Now, you had the real thing.

Jiho had found a way, with the help of some cutting edge scientists now known as the Red Tigers, to harness real human emotions, bottle them up, and make ten thousand dollars every second off them. After that, he went down in history as the world’s wealthiest man. And of course, everyone knew how he was getting the emotions, but as long as you stayed rich and kept your ratings up, you could forget about what exactly one vial of the Ez you just shot back actually cost.

Jiho, now, owned most of the nation. And in cahoots with him, due to the risk of losing her position if she wasn’t, was the President herself. You all knew who the real ruler of the nation was, but everyone let the President keep her chair and make her daily addresses as if Jiho wasn’t actually running the show.

During the last hour of work, as you were watching the clock count down instead of really doing anything, you and Taehyung were assigned a joint project by the head of your department. Taehyung, therefore, evaporated the partition between the two of you so you could work together.

“So, I say we work as hard as possible so that we can get the hell out of here. I’m itching to get to this party tonight,” Taehyung said, not looking at you as he typed away on his computer. You glanced over at him, astonished that the boy was going to yet another party.

“Do you ever sleep?” You asked, outlining your half of the project in a document. Taehyung’s document popped up on your screen a second letter, seemingly typing itself as he controlled it from his screen.

“Hmmm… I guess sometimes I do.” You could hear the smirk in his voice without even having to turn your head.

“What do you think about these new Ez, Tae?” you asked after a few moments of silent working passed.

Taehyung didn’t answer for a second. You would have assumed it was because he was finishing a thought on his document, but all typing had paused from his side of the screen. Finally, he leaned his chin into the palm of his hand and concentrated his entire focus on you. “Why do you want my opinion on them, Y/N?”

“I was just curious. I heard they have eleven new Ez’s coming out. And Innocence? Where, in the world, do you think they got innocence from? I just can’t believe how far Jiho has come with this industry; it’s truly amazing,” you gushed, glancing back at Taehyung. For a second, a shadow flashed across his face, making it seem as though he was scowling something fierce. But, the trick of the light was gone almost as quick as it’d come, and Taehyung was back to his normal, grinning self. You shook your head slightly, wondering if you were having some weird side effects from the Joy.

“It really is something,” Taehyung murmured, his attention coming back to his screen. From his document on your computer, you saw he had resumed his typing. “I’m very interested to try them out at my next party.”

You were about to reply to him, but suddenly the buzzer to end the work day was sounding, and Taehyung was quickly packing away his things. He furiously tore out of the office space, not even bothering to bid you adieu. He must be really eager to get to that party, you thought to yourself, and shrugged. No matter how friendly you and Taehyung were at work, what he did outside of the office was none of your business, and you didn’t give him a second thought as you walked out to your module and gave it the directions to Jimin’s Hot Bar.

Queen of Hearts, as Jimin had named it, was one of the most popular Hot Bars in the neighborhood. The flashing, neon red sign lit up the evening sky, beckoning to those weary and looking for their evening fix. Which, you realized with a frown, would be just about everyone at this time: rush hour. Quickly, you headed into the dimly lit lounge, spotting an empty stool at the fluorescently lit bar.

You dove for the seat upon your arrival, fighting through the quickly growing crowd. And to meet you in your aghast state was your best friend, smiling a broad eye smile as he cleaned a glass with a pearly white dish towel.

“Hi,” you squeaked, just as a group of rowdy young boys in suits and loosed ties pressed into your back, gesturing fiercely to Jimin.

“Hold that thought,” Jimin cheekily said to you, taking the group’s orders quickly and pouring them shot glasses of multiple, brightly colored liquids found in neat arrays of bottles on the backlit shelves behind him. Jimin was still smiling when he came back over to you. “What can I get ‘ya?”

“Just a tonic water for right now. I need some time to decompress,” you groaned, stretching out your aching calves under the bar. You were in love with these new pumps you’d bought for spring, but after multiple wears, they proved to hurt your feet no less than the first time you’d worn them to work.

“Long day at work?” Jimin asked, filling a glass with ice and tonic water from the hose under the bar. He garnished the drink with a lime slice and then passed it over to you.

“The longest,” you complained, although you realized you in no way wanted to talk for one more second about the office or anything associated to it. Instead, you changed the subject. “How’s the bar life?”

Jimin flicked a few strands of flaming orange hair out of his face before replying. “I’ve been pretty busy today. I’m sure you know by now about the new shipment of Ez’s coming through this week. And all the major Hot Bars, like mine, get them first. They’re coming in by the truckload, but I can’t start shelving them until next week.”

“Oh, big shot Hot Bars like yours?” You mused, taking a stoic sip of your drink. Jimin flushed and rolled his eyes at you, trying to cover his blush. “No, I completely understand Mr. Big Shot. How do you ever have time for a lowly electricity supplier such as myself?”

“Oh, come off it, Y/N. I was… I was just…” Jimin spluttered, causing you to laugh even more.

“I’m just fucking with you, Jimin. Queen of Hearts is the best Hot Bar in D Block, everyone knows that.” You glanced around, unnerved to find that people were still piling into the bar. Musingly, more to yourself than to Jimin, you spoke again. “It’s busy in here tonight.”

“They’re discontinuing Happiness.” You heard Jimin say. You whirled back around to him, astonishment causing your mouth to fall wide.

“Wh…why would they do that? Happiness was ZICO’s first Ez. It’s their best seller,” you gasped, wondering how the discontinuation of the most popular Ez was going to affect this market. Jiho and all his associates at ZICO must be really taking chances, or really know what they’re doing.

“They’re now putting out the Happy Volumes. It’s in four different parts, so now you’re not just boringly Happy. You can have any spectrum of Happiness, depending on how good you want it to be. Something to do with the concentrations of the Happiness per liter,” Jimin replied.

You plucked the lime from your now liquid free glass, sucking on the pulpous innards thoughtfully. “What are they?”

“The Volumes?” Jimin raised an orange eyebrow. “Cheer, Glee, Jubilance, and Euphoria.”

“Wow, Euphoria…” you trailed off. “That must be some strong Happiness, huh?”

“I guess so,” Jimin mused back, cleaning a couple more glasses before saying anything else. “But you’re not here to help me sell out of my supply of Happiness, are you?”

“So what if I am?” You asked, discarding the hallowed out lime rind beside your glass. Jimin raised his eyebrow again, obviously humored by your feigned innocence. He cleared your empty water glass away, took a couple’s order on the other side of the bar, and then came back to stand in front of you.

“So… what will it be, ma’lady?”

“Can I have an Ecstasy?” You asked tenderly, as you did every time you ordered one. You weren’t shy about ordering most Ez’s, but having Jimin know that you were drinking this Ez, one that would make you feel so vulnerable, even for only a few hours, had you borderline blushing.

“Namjoon must be coming over tonight, hmm?” Jimin smirked, but reached behind him to grab the bottle of neon blue liquid anyway.

You nodded tenderly as he set the shot glass before you, and then filled it up just slightly past the normal shot line. You smiled thankfully at your friend, but didn’t down the shot just yet. Instead, you chose to run your fingers through the water droplets your tonic glass had left behind, creating long streaks of dampness in their path. Jimin watched you for a second before piping up again.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, nodding at the girl who’d just waved him down. He poured her a shot of plumb colored Bliss, and then awaited your reply.

“It’s just my ratings,” you sighed, twirling your shot glass between your hands, but not taking a sip. You wouldn’t drink the shot until just before you were leaving.

“What about your ratings? They’re really good. You’re not in danger of getting –” Jimin began, but you cut him off harshly.

“No, I’m not.” You realized you had snapped out your reply, and tried to tone your voice down. “It’s just, how does Taehyung do it? I’ve never met another 9.7 in my life. Of course, celebrities and everything have just about a 10, but Kim Taehyung? He’s such a player, I can’t believe his jealous ex’s don’t send is ratings into the dirt.”

“Ah, I see. You’re jealous,” Jimin laughed. You glared up at your best friend. Glancing down at your watch, you were surprised to see that you’d spent a lot longer in Queen of Hearts then you’d meant to; Namjoon would be arriving at your house soon.

“I have to go, Jimin,” you said, grabbing up the glass of Ecstasy and swallowing it whole as you threw your head back. You slammed the shot glass down on the bar, your bright turquoise lipstick leaving a ring around the glass almost as iridescent as the liquid that had just inhabited it.

“Come on, Y/N, you know I was just kidding!” Jimin called after you as you grabbed your bag and began to pay for the shot with your handheld. “It’s on the house, Y/N.”

“I know you were kidding Jimin. We can talk about me paying for the shot later. I have to go, or Namjoon is going to show up at my house without me being there. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Jimin waved you away with a sweet smile, one you forced to return as you hurriedly exited the building. You began to make the short walk to your apartment, choosing instead to walk the few blocks instead of driving your module; it could stay in Jimin’s parking deck until the next morning.

You were already feeling the effects of the Ecstasy coursing through your system, filling you slowly like a small flame growing into a roaring fire. You were suddenly starting to break out in a light sweat, even though the night was quite cool.

Almost out of no where, a group of dark, shadowy figures showed up in your path, walking towards you brusquely. The Ecstasy made it hard to feel anything but a warmth glowing deep inside you, although you know you should probably feel frightened of the figures coming towards you.

As they approached, you could make out that there were four of them, and then suddenly the emblazoned dragon on their jackets drew your attention. You gasped, knowing full well who they were.

If the Red Tigers were Woo Jiho’s brains, the Black Dragons were his brawn. They roamed the streets, picking up people whose ratings were too low and making sure the city was safe. You knew they were simply here for your protection, and yet something about the feral way they walked caused gooseflesh to break out on your sweaty skin.

As they passed, the leader stared down at you. You knew his name, everyone did: Jaehyo. He ran the entirety of the Black Dragons, and he was just as fierce as his face was beautiful. Your eyes met his, holding his gaze steadily. You knew it was the Ecstasy side effects, but you couldn’t help feel a warm rush of excitement as Jaehyo’s gaze pierced you, the rest of his group just bodies filling the space behind him. You hadn’t realized you’d stopped walking until he was towering over you, glaring.

“Rating?” he growled. Your head felt light, but you put as much force into answering him as possible.

“8..8.6,” you stuttered, and heard a giggle from behind Jaehyo. He held out his hand, not saying anything else. Scrambling, you grabbed your handheld and pulled up your identification card that showed your rating and a copy of your thumbprint. Jaehyo snatched it from you and scrutinized it carefully, glancing over the photo of you on the identification card, and then giving your body a quick once over to make sure it matched.

He handed it back forcefully, not giving you enough time to say anything more before he was turning his back and quickly making his way down the pavement, his crowd following close behind. You noticed, even through the Ecstasy’s haze, that the one with the face tattoo was twirling a knife around in his hands and laughing manically.

Shuddering, you continued your pace home, making sure not to stop for anymore intrusions until you were safely tucked behind your locked door. Only moments after you’d slipped down the wood, breathing hard, was a knock ringing out over your house. Namjoon.

You scrambled to your feet and unlocked the door quickly, tugging Namjoon inside before bolting it back again. You turned to him sharply, a look of slight concern clouding his face. But there was something else, something deep and dark in his eyes tonight, shown in full force by the fact that his pink colored hair was pushed away from his face with a purple bandana. You let yourself heave a few more times, and then explained that you’d run into the Black Dragons on your way home from work.

“Well, your rating is fine, so what’s the problem? They’re just keeping us all safe,” Namjoon replied. You narrowed your eyes, because there it was again. The slight annoyance in his face.

“What did you take?” You ask, beckoning him to follow you through the house and towards your bedroom.

“Lust,” he all but growled, and your blood began to boil. You’d never taken a Lust before, and the hell-bent, dark way Namjoon was looking at your back as you walked made you even less likely to try one in the future.

You’d barely reached your room before Namjoon was grabbing onto your sides, slamming your back into the wall and crushing his lips against yours. Your gasp of surprise made it easy for him to slip his tongue between your teeth and coax at your own, smoothing over it roughly.

You moaned lowly in your throat, the Ecstasy making your nerve endings sing with even Namjoon’s slightest touch.

Namjoon’s groan was a low moan in the back of his throat, the chords of his muscles in his arm strung tight. You raked your hands through his pink hair, grabbing onto the purple bandana he was wearing and tossed it to the floor. He tugged sharply at the glittery pins in your hair, and suddenly it was tumbling down from its bun as he continued pressing chaste, hurried kisses on your lips.

Namjoon pulled you up so that you were straddling his waist, balancing a little ungracefully between his waist and the wall your back was against. You held onto his cheeks, to not only keep his lips pressed deliciously to yours, but also to hold yourself in place as he continued ravishing your body, one hand trailing all over your skin and the other balancing the two of you against the dry wall.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” Namjoon moaned, his tongue flecking against the backs of your teeth. A soft gasp escaped your lips. You pulled your mouth away slightly, trailing kisses from the corner of Namjoon’s mouth around his jawline and back again.

He suddenly dropped you back to your feet, ripping away your layers of clothes quickly. He was naked before you could bat an eyelash, his erection hard and throbbing against his stomach. You reached out to grasp him in your hand; you wanted to feel the way his length pulsed in your hand.

Namjoon stopped you, grasping your first fiercely and shoving you, face first, against the wall once more. He spit in his hand, then ran his fingers over your folds roughly, causing you to omit a soft groan. He pulled his hand away too quickly, leaving your core quivering in excitement.

“What, no foreplay?” You barely gasped, trying to get a teasing tone in your voice. Instead, you simply sounded breathless and needed.

“Later,” Namjoon said, now teasing your clit with the tip of his leaking cock. Your stomach was aching for him to fill you up: you needed to feel his walls stretching you open, fucking into you.

His first thrust was half-hearted, teasing. You groaned loudly, trying to encourage him to follow through. His pause after his tip entered and exited you shallowly felt like a lifetime. The Ecstasy was making your whole body feel hot and jittery: you just needed to feel something.

“Namjoon… pleas-” he cut your voice off, his cock suddenly thrusting into you completely. He was seated inside you, hilt deep, the blissful stretch of his pulsating cock causing you to throw your head back against his shoulder.

He placed his arms on either side of your head, caging you into the wall as he began thrusting. The sounds of his hips slapping against yours filled the room, mixing in with the forceful grunts he was making. You placed your forehead against the cool wall, concentrating on the way he was hitting inside of you just right, the way his cock made your toes curl and your stomach tie in knots.

“Fuck, Y/N, baby. You feel so fucking good,” Namjoon gasped in your ear, licking the shell of it. You whimpered back in response, not able to focus right as Namjoon kept his steady, brutally fast pace.

A sob broke from your lips as the knots in your stomach kept tightening. Your heart was racing, and every single fiber in your body felt like it was close to exploding. You were inching towards your high, and Namjoon was moaning low in your ear as he continued pounding into you, his pace fast and sharp.

“Namjoon!” you cried, your mind starting to become fuzzy. “Please, Namjoon Namjoon Namjoonnamjoonnamjoon…”

His name became your mantra, his cock pounding into you at just the right angle to make you see stars. And then, suddenly, just as you were right there, your orgasm so close you could taste it, Namjoon was pulling out.

“No!” you cried, turning around in his arms and trying to force him back into you. Instead, he just smirked, grabbing your arm and leading you towards the bed. The Lust in Namjoon’s system caused his eyes to darken; his pupils blasted wide. You swallow hard. Something about that animalistic look, it was completely raw and feral.

Namjoon had never taken a Lust before, at least not when he’d been with you, and the looks he was giving you now was making your belly tighten up all over again. You liked the way he was breathing heavy, sweat droplets cascading down his bare chest. He was looking at you like a hunter looks at its prey: ready for the kill.

“You can’t cum just yet, baby,” Namjoon rasped, his voice coming out rough and raspy. You involuntarily shivered at this unspoken promise: this wouldn’t be just a quickie. Namjoon tugged you towards the bed, the two of you tumbling into the sheets in a mixture of limbs and mouths.

Namjoon dove in between your legs, his tongue leaving hot trails along your inner thighs. He clamped your legs apart between his hands, holding you wide before him; his mouth seemingly watered as he gazed at your exposed core. The tip of his tongue emerged, swiping furiously over his bottom lip before he lowered his head and teased your clit with his mouth.

You cried out, your knuckles grabbing the sheets until they turned white. Your head was thrown back, your mouth forming a perfect “O” as Namjoon and the Ecstasy caused your heart and body to sing.

[coffee-and-kpop]

oblivion | pt.1

(n.) the state of being unaware of what is happening around you

pt.1

‣ Words: 6,037

‣ Genre: Jungkook!Black Mirror/Future Au, NamjoonxReader smut

‣ Summary: In this futuristic world, why have your own emotions when you can easily take someone else’s?

‣ A/N: I am so obsessed with this story guys it’s not even funny. This isn’t really a NamjoonxReader story, I just put Namjoon’s character in here to help with the plot! This story is inspired by… We Happy Few, Black Mirror, SyFy’s Alice, Tinder 2.0 by @tayegi, Block B’s Nalina, and a whole lot of weird from my brain.

‣ Playlist

You roll over in your bed, groaning as the peppy alarm tone from your handheld chirps. It sounds like a bird, although much more artificial and mechanic. You listen to the chirruping for a few more seconds; maybe if you just lay there and do nothing, it will all stop and you’ll magically have two more hours to sleep before work.

The chirps continue.

You grab your thin, see through handheld from the bedside table and light it up, the alarm options immediately brightening the rectangle of glass. Pressing snooze, you try to roll back over in your bed, but the mechanic birds have done their job: you’re unable to fall back asleep.

Groaning, you click the shower button on your handheld, hearing the warm spray of water start up from the next room over. You watch the bathroom door until steam starts to roil from beneath, and your bladder starts to groan. Hopping out of your warm cocoon of covers, you press the temperature button on your handheld down a few notches and walk into your, now, sauna like bathroom, immediately heading for the toilet. Once you’d wiped and flushed, you stripped away the large nightshirt you were wearing and the matching short shorts, the silky fabric falling into the dirty clothes hamper gracefully.

If you weren’t already awake, the warm jet of water from the multiple shower heads lining the shower gave you a sudden shock. You rubbed some of the water on your face, washing away the rest of your night’s sleep.

You pressed the shampoo button on the keypad installed in the wall of the shower, and placed your other hand under the small cutout beside it where your shampoo would be dispensed. You’d learned after multiple attempts, begrudgingly, that the shampoo dispensed rapidly as soon as you pressed the button on the keypad.

You lathered your bright dyed burgundy hair in a cloud of lavender smelling suds, basking in the feel of your fingertips massaging into your scalp. Once you’d rinsed and conditioned, you pressed the button on the keypad for the soap, and flinched as multiple streams of lemon-esque, liquid soap spurted from the facets lining the walls of the shower.

You lathered your whole body carefully, taking your time to massage the soap into your limbs. You felt sore and achy, although you couldn’t remember doing anything strenuous the day before, besides your daily walk on the treadmill after work.

Once the shower had powered off – set automatically for fifteen minutes to conserve water – you wrapped your body in a large, fluffy towel and set about the strenuous process of drying your hair. Once the burgundy mass was dried, you stuffed it into a chignon-like bun on the top of your head, leaving a few small strands to hang loose around your face.

You held your toothbrush under the dispenser in the wall by the sink, setting out to clean your mouth before applying your makeup. When the paste was rinsed from your mouth, you expertly painted your face in elaborate colors and schemes. You liked wearing your foundation a little darker than the norm – most women your age preferred the ghostly white shade to allow the bright red and pinks of their rogue to stand out. You, however, stuck to the more natural side, choosing instead to highlight your face with an array of eyeshadows and lipsticks. Today, you applied a sea foam green palette to your eyes, basing it with a shimmering silver eye liner and green lashes to stand out against your blush. Your bright blue lipstick was one you’d picked up the day before: a new spring collection you just couldn’t wait to get your hands on.

You pressed the button for your coffee pot on your handheld, and after you were clad in your normal blush pink blouse and white skirt you wore to work, you were led into the kitchen by the savory smell of roasted coffee beans. Popping an egg and bacon package into your automatic cooker, you sipped your freshly poured mug of coffee and glanced at your handheld, trying to sneak a peek at the social streams flowing through before you’d have to leave for work.

When your eggs and bacon were settled happily in your stomach, you grabbed the little glass jar of Joy pills on top of the counter and popped one of the dusty pink capsules into your mouth, swallowing it down with your last swing of coffee.

You’d been taking the Joy pills for almost a week now, and you could see your days already brighter than before. The Joys would be something that stayed in your life, if nothing else. Usually, the Ez’s were in liquid form, but your friend Jimin had scored you a test trial of the new pill prototypes, and you were in heaven.

You smiled down at your handheld, letting it lock itself and then placing it into your work bag. You grabbed your key fob, pressed the automatic button ignition button to have your module started up before you reached it in the driveway. The module settings immediately lit up your handheld, and you dug it out of the bag to crank the heater on in the module. Even though spring was fast approaching, the morning air was still nippy, and your arms tended to have bad circulation in the cold.

As you walked briskly towards your module, your pink pumps clinked against the sidewalk: the only sound heard on this quiet Monday morning. Your grey two-seater was perched excitedly in the drive, right where you’d left it the night before. It was a tiny thing, something your mother had complained about not being suited for a family. When you bought it as a teenager, however, you hadn’t been thinking of the future family you’d have, and have to transport around. Now, however, with your dating age rapidly coming to termination, you were going to have to desperately start looking for a long time match.

“Good morning, Y/N. Where will we be going today?” The automated voice of your module sounded cheerily through the speakers as you sat down. You placed your work bag into the passenger seat and buckled before replying.

“To work, please,” you replied

“To work it is. What would you like me to play on the radio to make your ride more comfortable?” The module began pulling out, letting you recline your seat back slightly and stare out the window as it began the short commute to the module parking deck beside your building.

“Play the news, please,” the local news channel started up immediately; you found that taking a Joy in the morning made listening to the news much more enjoyable.

“And lastly, we are proud to announce that ZICO company is placing on the market for sell, starting next week, a whole new collection of Spring Emotions that will sure fire kick start your new season. Those of which include, Euphoria, Fascination, Meditation, and Innocence. Shipments of the new Emotions will begin today! We are so pleased with the satisfaction ZICO provides this great nation.” You listened intently as the President continued making her morning speech. Her gravelly voice flitted through your radio, but you couldn’t contain your excitement. There hadn’t been a new shipment of Ez’s on the market since summer, and with Jimin owning one of the largest local Hot Bars, you were sure to be able to try at least a couple early.

“Thank you for listening to the daily Presidential address. And remember, equality is for us all,” the radio clicked off immediately, ending the local broadcast and the news for the day. You started to ask your module to play some classical music for the rest of the ride, until you realized the module was parking itself in its normal spot in your company’s deck.

It shut itself off after parking, ejecting the fob into your waiting hand and closing the door after you’d stepped out, locking the doors with a quick swipe of your thumbprint.

Your walk into the office was a bit louder than usual. The automatons in the shape of birds had sprung out of their nests and were occasional swooping through the air to let out beautiful, electronic music. Just as you were about to step up to the stairs, a swatch of dingy cloth caught your eye near the base of the building. Peering closer, you saw the humped over shape of a women, obviously homeless, with a paper cup held out in her hand.

The Joy was still coursing through your system, making your heart light and airy. Eagerly, you walked over to the women, giving a small pat to the black dog you noticed was sitting beside her. You dropped a small coin in the cup, gave her a genuine smile, and turned to head into work.

Your office was already a buzz with life with you finally reached your desk. You’d worked at ZICO Light and Electricity for nearly five years, and every day you dreaded coming to work. However, in the last week, the new Joy pills made you smile brightly at the thought of climbing behind your desk and getting to work.

“Hey, Y/N!” You heard a bright voice call from the top of the partition the separated your cubicle from the one directly to your left. Glancing up, you saw your coworker, Taehyung, smiling down at you brightly, his chin resting on his crossed arms. The few strands of dyed mint hair in his bangs flopped nonchalantly into his heavily kohled eyes.

“Good morning, Taehyung,” you smiled cheerily up at him. While you weren’t sure how much you trusted your coworker, you couldn’t help but admit that his happy-go-lucky personality always seemed to brighten up the workplace. However, his obnoxious reputation of being a player was something that made you keep your guard up.

You could feel the effects of the Joy slowly start to dwindle as your mind wandered to Taehyung’s social stream from the night before. You’d, as always, given his stream a 10 rating, although you weren’t necessarily sure you thought that highly of the alluded threesome he was going to be having after his raging party, one of the many for the week.

You couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be at one of his parties, however. Your mind teased the idea of shooting back so many different kinds of Ez’s with Taehyung and your friends, you’d be in a cloudy, drunken haze through the next morning. Sometimes Taehyung would come into work still drunk from his dozens of shots of Ez’s, and you’d sit and ponder how it would feel.

His feed was always full of slightly blurry photographs, the most brilliant things in the photographs being the dozens of shots of Ez’s held up. Last night, you’d skimmed through his make out session with girl one, watched him smile with his close friend Yoongi, and then make out with girl two. There were a few photos of him with both girls, wrapped up in them in an array of too short skirts and colored shots, before his feed abruptly ended for the night.

No matter how blurry or helter-skelter Taehyung’s feed was, it still earned him a 9.7 rating, something you could only dream of having.

“Y/N, did you hear me?” Taehyung asked, the kohl around his narrowed eyes making the slits looking even thinner. You jerked to attention, smiling sheepishly.

“I’m so sorry, Taehyung. I didn’t get much sleep last night. What did you say?”

“I was just telling you how great those eggplant parmesan puffs looked that you shared. I rated them a 10. You’ll have to give me the recipe for them, or bring some into the office sometime.” Taehyung smiled.

“Oh, of course!” you gasped, laughing and mentally trying to clear your calendar. If you skipped your yoga class that Thursday, you could have the puffs baked for Friday. You almost giggled out loud at the thought of your rating going up by the weekend. “I’ll see if I have some time to bring them in soon.”

“Great, I can’t wait.” Taehyung ducked his head back down into his cubicle, just as the buzzer sounded for the workday to begin. You heard the simultaneous clicking of computer mice as your coworkers around the office began their day.

You worked continuously until your lunch break, as you were supposed to. The buzzer sounded, and the whole office seemed to sigh with relief like one giant, exhausted entity. Grabbing a small, pre-packaged salad out of the small fridge below your desk, you choose to stay in your cubicle instead of heading down to the cafeteria.

Munching on the salad thoughtfully, your mind once again trailed back to Taehyung and his many partying antics. What would it take for you to be one of those girls in the photos with him? Of course, you’d flown through their feeds, looking at their lean bodies and symmetrical faces with extra scrutiny. They’d both been 9.6’s.

Glancing down at the salad you were eating, your stomach groaned. Ever since you’d posted a bikini picture the following summer, and received a 4.5 rating on the photo overall, you’d been desperately trying to control your figure and watch what you ate, hoping to be in shape by this coming summer. So far, the progress was minimal, and you were now shopping for cute, covered one pieces you could flounce in around the pool.

“So, Y/N, you going to any parties tonight?” Taehyung asked, announcing himself at the top of your cubicle by his question. You glanced over at him, smiling even though the Joy pill was waning.

“I might go to a Hot Bar later. My friend owns one close to my house,” you replied, turning back to scroll through the swim suit collections.

“Oooh,” Taehyung whistled low through his teeth. “What are you getting?”

“Patience, so I’ll be able to withstand work this up coming week,” you lied.

“I heard Patience doesn’t last very long,” Taehyung said, more to himself then to you. You ignored his comment, casting him one last smile as the buzzer sounded to return to work. You were distracted during work, however, thinking of your upcoming trip to the Hot Bar, and the new Ez’s that would be shelved soon.

The Hot Bars had always been a thing, although they didn’t always sell Ez’s. Ever since the invention of the Ez’s, however, the Hot Bars began popping up everywhere, seemingly on every street corner ever since Woo Jiho had inherited his father’s company, and made the family dream a reality.

His parents had been pharmacists, met and fallen in love during school. They’d made their fortune, and given the Woo name a spot in history books, when they’d developed the first hypersensitive vitamin supplements that enhanced certain emotions within the human body, and thus blocking out everything else but that feeling. However, that was back in your parents’ early years. Now, you had the real thing.

Jiho had found a way, with the help of some cutting edge scientists now known as the Red Tigers, to harness real human emotions, bottle them up, and make ten thousand dollars every second off them. After that, he went down in history as the world’s wealthiest man. And of course, everyone knew how he was getting the emotions, but as long as you stayed rich and kept your ratings up, you could forget about what exactly one vial of the Ez you just shot back actually cost.

Jiho, now, owned most of the nation. And in cahoots with him, due to the risk of losing her position if she wasn’t, was the President herself. You all knew who the real ruler of the nation was, but everyone let the President keep her chair and make her daily addresses as if Jiho wasn’t actually running the show.

During the last hour of work, as you were watching the clock count down instead of really doing anything, you and Taehyung were assigned a joint project by the head of your department. Taehyung, therefore, evaporated the partition between the two of you so you could work together.

“So, I say we work as hard as possible so that we can get the hell out of here. I’m itching to get to this party tonight,” Taehyung said, not looking at you as he typed away on his computer. You glanced over at him, astonished that the boy was going to yet another party.

“Do you ever sleep?” You asked, outlining your half of the project in a document. Taehyung’s document popped up on your screen a second letter, seemingly typing itself as he controlled it from his screen.

“Hmmm… I guess sometimes I do.” You could hear the smirk in his voice without even having to turn your head.

“What do you think about these new Ez, Tae?” you asked after a few moments of silent working passed.

Taehyung didn’t answer for a second. You would have assumed it was because he was finishing a thought on his document, but all typing had paused from his side of the screen. Finally, he leaned his chin into the palm of his hand and concentrated his entire focus on you. “Why do you want my opinion on them, Y/N?”

“I was just curious. I heard they have eleven new Ez’s coming out. And Innocence? Where, in the world, do you think they got innocence from? I just can’t believe how far Jiho has come with this industry; it’s truly amazing,” you gushed, glancing back at Taehyung. For a second, a shadow flashed across his face, making it seem as though he was scowling something fierce. But, the trick of the light was gone almost as quick as it’d come, and Taehyung was back to his normal, grinning self. You shook your head slightly, wondering if you were having some weird side effects from the Joy.

“It really is something,” Taehyung murmured, his attention coming back to his screen. From his document on your computer, you saw he had resumed his typing. “I’m very interested to try them out at my next party.”

You were about to reply to him, but suddenly the buzzer to end the work day was sounding, and Taehyung was quickly packing away his things. He furiously tore out of the office space, not even bothering to bid you adieu. He must be really eager to get to that party, you thought to yourself, and shrugged. No matter how friendly you and Taehyung were at work, what he did outside of the office was none of your business, and you didn’t give him a second thought as you walked out to your module and gave it the directions to Jimin’s Hot Bar.

Queen of Hearts, as Jimin had named it, was one of the most popular Hot Bars in the neighborhood. The flashing, neon red sign lit up the evening sky, beckoning to those weary and looking for their evening fix. Which, you realized with a frown, would be just about everyone at this time: rush hour. Quickly, you headed into the dimly lit lounge, spotting an empty stool at the fluorescently lit bar.

You dove for the seat upon your arrival, fighting through the quickly growing crowd. And to meet you in your aghast state was your best friend, smiling a broad eye smile as he cleaned a glass with a pearly white dish towel.

“Hi,” you squeaked, just as a group of rowdy young boys in suits and loosed ties pressed into your back, gesturing fiercely to Jimin.

“Hold that thought,” Jimin cheekily said to you, taking the group’s orders quickly and pouring them shot glasses of multiple, brightly colored liquids found in neat arrays of bottles on the backlit shelves behind him. Jimin was still smiling when he came back over to you. “What can I get ‘ya?”

“Just a tonic water for right now. I need some time to decompress,” you groaned, stretching out your aching calves under the bar. You were in love with these new pumps you’d bought for spring, but after multiple wears, they proved to hurt your feet no less than the first time you’d worn them to work.

“Long day at work?” Jimin asked, filling a glass with ice and tonic water from the hose under the bar. He garnished the drink with a lime slice and then passed it over to you.

“The longest,” you complained, although you realized you in no way wanted to talk for one more second about the office or anything associated to it. Instead, you changed the subject. “How’s the bar life?”

Jimin flicked a few strands of flaming orange hair out of his face before replying. “I’ve been pretty busy today. I’m sure you know by now about the new shipment of Ez’s coming through this week. And all the major Hot Bars, like mine, get them first. They’re coming in by the truckload, but I can’t start shelving them until next week.”

“Oh, big shot Hot Bars like yours?” You mused, taking a stoic sip of your drink. Jimin flushed and rolled his eyes at you, trying to cover his blush. “No, I completely understand Mr. Big Shot. How do you ever have time for a lowly electricity supplier such as myself?”

“Oh, come off it, Y/N. I was… I was just…” Jimin spluttered, causing you to laugh even more.

“I’m just fucking with you, Jimin. Queen of Hearts is the best Hot Bar in D Block, everyone knows that.” You glanced around, unnerved to find that people were still piling into the bar. Musingly, more to yourself than to Jimin, you spoke again. “It’s busy in here tonight.”

“They’re discontinuing Happiness.” You heard Jimin say. You whirled back around to him, astonishment causing your mouth to fall wide.

“Wh…why would they do that? Happiness was ZICO’s first Ez. It’s their best seller,” you gasped, wondering how the discontinuation of the most popular Ez was going to affect this market. Jiho and all his associates at ZICO must be really taking chances, or really know what they’re doing.

“They’re now putting out the Happy Volumes. It’s in four different parts, so now you’re not just boringly Happy. You can have any spectrum of Happiness, depending on how good you want it to be. Something to do with the concentrations of the Happiness per liter,” Jimin replied.

You plucked the lime from your now liquid free glass, sucking on the pulpous innards thoughtfully. “What are they?”

“The Volumes?” Jimin raised an orange eyebrow. “Cheer, Glee, Jubilance, and Euphoria.”

“Wow, Euphoria…” you trailed off. “That must be some strong Happiness, huh?”

“I guess so,” Jimin mused back, cleaning a couple more glasses before saying anything else. “But you’re not here to help me sell out of my supply of Happiness, are you?”

“So what if I am?” You asked, discarding the hallowed out lime rind beside your glass. Jimin raised his eyebrow again, obviously humored by your feigned innocence. He cleared your empty water glass away, took a couple’s order on the other side of the bar, and then came back to stand in front of you.

“So… what will it be, ma’lady?”

“Can I have an Ecstasy?” You asked tenderly, as you did every time you ordered one. You weren’t shy about ordering most Ez’s, but having Jimin know that you were drinking this Ez, one that would make you feel so vulnerable, even for only a few hours, had you borderline blushing.

“Namjoon must be coming over tonight, hmm?” Jimin smirked, but reached behind him to grab the bottle of neon blue liquid anyway.

You nodded tenderly as he set the shot glass before you, and then filled it up just slightly past the normal shot line. You smiled thankfully at your friend, but didn’t down the shot just yet. Instead, you chose to run your fingers through the water droplets your tonic glass had left behind, creating long streaks of dampness in their path. Jimin watched you for a second before piping up again.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, nodding at the girl who’d just waved him down. He poured her a shot of plumb colored Bliss, and then awaited your reply.

“It’s just my ratings,” you sighed, twirling your shot glass between your hands, but not taking a sip. You wouldn’t drink the shot until just before you were leaving.

“What about your ratings? They’re really good. You’re not in danger of getting –” Jimin began, but you cut him off harshly.

“No, I’m not.” You realized you had snapped out your reply, and tried to tone your voice down. “It’s just, how does Taehyung do it? I’ve never met another 9.7 in my life. Of course, celebrities and everything have just about a 10, but Kim Taehyung? He’s such a player, I can’t believe his jealous ex’s don’t send is ratings into the dirt.”

“Ah, I see. You’re jealous,” Jimin laughed. You glared up at your best friend. Glancing down at your watch, you were surprised to see that you’d spent a lot longer in Queen of Hearts then you’d meant to; Namjoon would be arriving at your house soon.

“I have to go, Jimin,” you said, grabbing up the glass of Ecstasy and swallowing it whole as you threw your head back. You slammed the shot glass down on the bar, your bright turquoise lipstick leaving a ring around the glass almost as iridescent as the liquid that had just inhabited it.

“Come on, Y/N, you know I was just kidding!” Jimin called after you as you grabbed your bag and began to pay for the shot with your handheld. “It’s on the house, Y/N.”

“I know you were kidding Jimin. We can talk about me paying for the shot later. I have to go, or Namjoon is going to show up at my house without me being there. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Jimin waved you away with a sweet smile, one you forced to return as you hurriedly exited the building. You began to make the short walk to your apartment, choosing instead to walk the few blocks instead of driving your module; it could stay in Jimin’s parking deck until the next morning.

You were already feeling the effects of the Ecstasy coursing through your system, filling you slowly like a small flame growing into a roaring fire. You were suddenly starting to break out in a light sweat, even though the night was quite cool.

Almost out of no where, a group of dark, shadowy figures showed up in your path, walking towards you brusquely. The Ecstasy made it hard to feel anything but a warmth glowing deep inside you, although you know you should probably feel frightened of the figures coming towards you.

As they approached, you could make out that there were four of them, and then suddenly the emblazoned dragon on their jackets drew your attention. You gasped, knowing full well who they were.

If the Red Tigers were Woo Jiho’s brains, the Black Dragons were his brawn. They roamed the streets, picking up people whose ratings were too low and making sure the city was safe. You knew they were simply here for your protection, and yet something about the feral way they walked caused gooseflesh to break out on your sweaty skin.

As they passed, the leader stared down at you. You knew his name, everyone did: Jaehyo. He ran the entirety of the Black Dragons, and he was just as fierce as his face was beautiful. Your eyes met his, holding his gaze steadily. You knew it was the Ecstasy side effects, but you couldn’t help feel a warm rush of excitement as Jaehyo’s gaze pierced you, the rest of his group just bodies filling the space behind him. You hadn’t realized you’d stopped walking until he was towering over you, glaring.

“Rating?” he growled. Your head felt light, but you put as much force into answering him as possible.

“8..8.6,” you stuttered, and heard a giggle from behind Jaehyo. He held out his hand, not saying anything else. Scrambling, you grabbed your handheld and pulled up your identification card that showed your rating and a copy of your thumbprint. Jaehyo snatched it from you and scrutinized it carefully, glancing over the photo of you on the identification card, and then giving your body a quick once over to make sure it matched.

He handed it back forcefully, not giving you enough time to say anything more before he was turning his back and quickly making his way down the pavement, his crowd following close behind. You noticed, even through the Ecstasy’s haze, that the one with the face tattoo was twirling a knife around in his hands and laughing manically.

Shuddering, you continued your pace home, making sure not to stop for anymore intrusions until you were safely tucked behind your locked door. Only moments after you’d slipped down the wood, breathing hard, was a knock ringing out over your house. Namjoon.

You scrambled to your feet and unlocked the door quickly, tugging Namjoon inside before bolting it back again. You turned to him sharply, a look of slight concern clouding his face. But there was something else, something deep and dark in his eyes tonight, shown in full force by the fact that his pink colored hair was pushed away from his face with a purple bandana. You let yourself heave a few more times, and then explained that you’d run into the Black Dragons on your way home from work.

“Well, your rating is fine, so what’s the problem? They’re just keeping us all safe,” Namjoon replied. You narrowed your eyes, because there it was again. The slight annoyance in his face.

“What did you take?” You ask, beckoning him to follow you through the house and towards your bedroom.

“Lust,” he all but growled, and your blood began to boil. You’d never taken a Lust before, and the hell-bent, dark way Namjoon was looking at your back as you walked made you even less likely to try one in the future.

You’d barely reached your room before Namjoon was grabbing onto your sides, slamming your back into the wall and crushing his lips against yours. Your gasp of surprise made it easy for him to slip his tongue between your teeth and coax at your own, smoothing over it roughly.

You moaned lowly in your throat, the Ecstasy making your nerve endings sing with even Namjoon’s slightest touch.

Namjoon’s groan was a low moan in the back of his throat, the chords of his muscles in his arm strung tight. You raked your hands through his pink hair, grabbing onto the purple bandana he was wearing and tossed it to the floor. He tugged sharply at the glittery pins in your hair, and suddenly it was tumbling down from its bun as he continued pressing chaste, hurried kisses on your lips.

Namjoon pulled you up so that you were straddling his waist, balancing a little ungracefully between his waist and the wall your back was against. You held onto his cheeks, to not only keep his lips pressed deliciously to yours, but also to hold yourself in place as he continued ravishing your body, one hand trailing all over your skin and the other balancing the two of you against the dry wall.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” Namjoon moaned, his tongue flecking against the backs of your teeth. A soft gasp escaped your lips. You pulled your mouth away slightly, trailing kisses from the corner of Namjoon’s mouth around his jawline and back again.

He suddenly dropped you back to your feet, ripping away your layers of clothes quickly. He was naked before you could bat an eyelash, his erection hard and throbbing against his stomach. You reached out to grasp him in your hand; you wanted to feel the way his length pulsed in your hand.

Namjoon stopped you, grasping your first fiercely and shoving you, face first, against the wall once more. He spit in his hand, then ran his fingers over your folds roughly, causing you to omit a soft groan. He pulled his hand away too quickly, leaving your core quivering in excitement.

“What, no foreplay?” You barely gasped, trying to get a teasing tone in your voice. Instead, you simply sounded breathless and needed.

“Later,” Namjoon said, now teasing your clit with the tip of his leaking cock. Your stomach was aching for him to fill you up: you needed to feel his walls stretching you open, fucking into you.

His first thrust was half-hearted, teasing. You groaned loudly, trying to encourage him to follow through. His pause after his tip entered and exited you shallowly felt like a lifetime. The Ecstasy was making your whole body feel hot and jittery: you just needed to feel something. 

“Namjoon… pleas-” he cut your voice off, his cock suddenly thrusting into you completely. He was seated inside you, hilt deep, the blissful stretch of his pulsating cock causing you to throw your head back against his shoulder.

He placed his arms on either side of your head, caging you into the wall as he began thrusting. The sounds of his hips slapping against yours filled the room, mixing in with the forceful grunts he was making. You placed your forehead against the cool wall, concentrating on the way he was hitting inside of you just right, the way his cock made your toes curl and your stomach tie in knots.

“Fuck, Y/N, baby. You feel so fucking good,” Namjoon gasped in your ear, licking the shell of it. You whimpered back in response, not able to focus right as Namjoon kept his steady, brutally fast pace.

A sob broke from your lips as the knots in your stomach kept tightening. Your heart was racing, and every single fiber in your body felt like it was close to exploding. You were inching towards your high, and Namjoon was moaning low in your ear as he continued pounding into you, his pace fast and sharp.

“Namjoon!” you cried, your mind starting to become fuzzy. “Please, Namjoon Namjoon Namjoonnamjoonnamjoon…”

His name became your mantra, his cock pounding into you at just the right angle to make you see stars. And then, suddenly, just as you were right there, your orgasm so close you could taste it, Namjoon was pulling out.

“No!” you cried, turning around in his arms and trying to force him back into you. Instead, he just smirked, grabbing your arm and leading you towards the bed. The Lust in Namjoon’s system caused his eyes to darken; his pupils blasted wide. You swallow hard. Something about that animalistic look, it was completely raw and feral.

Namjoon had never taken a Lust before, at least not when he’d been with you, and the looks he was giving you now was making your belly tighten up all over again. You liked the way he was breathing heavy, sweat droplets cascading down his bare chest. He was looking at you like a hunter looks at its prey: ready for the kill.

“You can’t cum just yet, baby,” Namjoon rasped, his voice coming out rough and raspy. You involuntarily shivered at this unspoken promise: this wouldn’t be just a quickie. Namjoon tugged you towards the bed, the two of you tumbling into the sheets in a mixture of limbs and mouths.

Namjoon dove in between your legs, his tongue leaving hot trails along your inner thighs. He clamped your legs apart between his hands, holding you wide before him; his mouth seemingly watered as he gazed at your exposed core. The tip of his tongue emerged, swiping furiously over his bottom lip before he lowered his head and teased your clit with his mouth.

You cried out, your knuckles grabbing the sheets until they turned white. Your head was thrown back, your mouth forming a perfect “O” as Namjoon and the Ecstasy caused your heart and body to sing.

[endlessarchite]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

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[statusreview]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub published first on http://ift.tt/2r6hzQy

[truereviewpage]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub published first on http://ift.tt/2qCHnUt

[lukerhill]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

[additionallysad]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub http://ift.tt/2xW6urO

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

[interiorstarweb]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub published first on http://ift.tt/2uiWrIt

[woodcraftor]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of elbow grease, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub posted first on http://ift.tt/2qOPBf9

[vincentbnaughton]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We basically ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house, knowing that it would only get dirtier throughout the process (we did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up), but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown rust streak below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us (I just happened to find on discount at Ross and grabbed it thanks to you guys recommending it for old clawfoot tubs!). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool work, we also have heard that a pummice stone can actually buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to note if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of elbow grease, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

[endlessarchite]

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub

We’ve gotten A LOT of questions about how we’ve rescued the clawfoot tub at our beach house, so let’s just dive right into what worked (and what didn’t) and how we nursed this baby back to life.

The tub existed in the house when we bought it last October (Saturday will be our 1-year house-iversary!). But it was a pretty sad existence, as evidenced by the bathroom literally falling apart around it. Yes, this is what that bathroom looked like when we bought the house. You’ll remember we later had to fully remove and rebuild that entire side of the house because it was sinking into the ground due to a completely failing foundation (!!!). You can read more about that process here.

During demo, our contractor moved it out into the bedroom, which is where it lived for over half a year as destruction and reconstruction went on around it.

Once that side of the house was all rebuilt, it was pretty exciting to picture the tub going back in there – this time on stable footing. Here I am back in January standing where the bathtub now sits. Remember John’s best Boomerang capture of all time?

We pretty much ignored the tub during the entire gutting/rebuilding process of the house. We did keep it covered with a piece of plywood so it didn’t get dinged up, but we put off making a plan to resuscitate it until we actually had a bathroom to put it into again.

And then came that exciting day when the bathroom tile was in, the grout was done, and we needed to think about getting this tub back into the bathroom. It was finally time to assess the tub situation to see if it was something we’d have to pay someone to refinish, or something we could tackle ourselves. The first thing I did was wipe everything down (with a spare grout sponge) just to see how stained the inside of the tub really was. A remarkable amount of grime came off, so it gave us hope that we could save it without having to hire someone to professionally paint the inside (we hear that can flake and peel off down the line, so getting it back to its original finish would beat a rental with a peeling/flaking tub in 5-10 years).

We originally worried there were rust stains (which wouldn’t be something we could scrub off – rust literally pits the glazing and creates a hole that needs to be filled and sanded and typically calls for a pro to fix) but upon further inspection we realized that some of this “rust” was actually rubbing off! See the white speckles on those brown streaks below? Turns out nothing was pitted, but there were just some really really bad hard water deposits on top of the tub… which meant if we could scrub them off, we’d find more of that original white finish under them!

So a few weeks later, once the plumber had moved the tub back into the bathroom, we arrived in Cape Charles armed with an array of cleaners – ready to show the tub who’s boss. This is what it looked like when we started:

First, we wanted to evaluate what was just surface grime and what was a legit stain. So we sprayed the whole thing down with 1-part white vinegar, 1-part water and used a little elbow grease (and a green scouring pad) to get all of the superficial gunk off.

It made a HUGE difference, although not enough that I would be willing to actually take a bath in there yet.

The next tool in our arsenal was a bottle of Bar Keeper’s Friend Soft Cleanser, which a few people had recommended to us for old tubs (I just happened to find it for like $1.50 at Ross). We followed the instructions of applying it to a damp surface, letting it sit, and then scrubbing it off. Results were not very good. Confidence levels majorly wavered at this point.

Undeterred, we decided to try a more generous application of BKF (is that what the kids are calling it these days?) and let it sit for much longer (like 15-20 minutes). In the meantime, we also used a heavy duty Magic Eraser on some of the other spots, which is another tip you guys shared for trying to clean up an old tub. It certainly helped, but was a bit slow-going. We burned through a couple of them pretty quickly, but things were starting to look better…

After the scrub had sat for about 20 minutes, we tackled it with a piece of fine grade steel wool (along with hearing that magic erasers and fine steel wool can work, we also have heard that a pumice stone can buff out small stains too – so that’s something else to try if you have the same job ahead of you – we just didn’t have one with us). I’m not sure if it was the cleanser or the steel wool, but we finally started to see some noticeable progress.

It still required A LOT of elbow grease, but it was insanely satisfying to see those rust streaks dissipating. We also very gently scraped it in some parts with the dulled tip of our multi-tool. I didn’t take a picture because I didn’t want to necessarily recommend it since it can etch/scratch your tub which is NOT GOOD, but we checked frequently to make sure we weren’t scratching ours, and it was helpful in chipping off some large chunks of rust-covered hard water stains.

The final results are not flawless, but we are more than satisfied with how it looks. All the rusty looking rings you see below will be covered by a new drain, faucet and spigot once they’re installed, so aside from a few slight imperfections in the white interior finish, she’s gonna look pretty dang good. I’m officially more than willing to plop my bod down in there for a good soak. Just picture me in there wearing a black turtleneck for modesty reasons.

This feels like a good moment for a before and after. Again, this is all from just cleaning – no actual refinishing or reglazing went on with the inside. So we’re glad that there should be no issues with bubbling or peeling paint since we were able to restore the original finish of the tub. Those few sentences don’t adequately capture how elated I am, so I’ll add this: ALL THE JAZZ HANDS!

Now let’s talk about restoring the outside, because what good is a tidy interior if the exterior looks ready for a horror movie?

Our first step was to sand it down, mostly just to get all of the already flaking paint off so we could have a relatively smooth surface to paint. NOTE: always test old tubs for lead paint! Many have it, which is extremely dangerous, especially if kids will be bathing in them. We were thrilled to find out ours was clean- most likely since the outside was painted sometime after lead was phased out and since the inside had never been reglazed.

First we used some coarse sanding blocks to scrub all of the exterior by hand, which was slow going, but definitely knocked a bunch of old dry paint flakes to the ground. John had also bought this rust-removing drill attachment while we were at the store and it turned out to be the perfect tool for the job. It knocked off even more of the loosest parts of the old finish in no time. NOTE NUMBER TWO: we were both wearing heavy-duty lead paint removal masks during all this sanding just to be safe because tons of dust flies and even though it checked out to be lead free, we didn’t want to be inhaling a ton of tiny dust particles anyway, so you’ll catch a glimpse of those later in the post.

After a pass with the drill, we went over by hand with medium and then fine-grit sanding blocks to smooth it out a bit more. It would’ve taken us hours to get everything down to the original finish, but in about 20 minutes we got it down to a smooth-to-the-touch finish which is good enough. You just want a nice flake-free base for some rust-blocking primer and paint to adhere to without worrying it’ll flake and pop off down the line (primer & paint are generally only as secure as their base – so make sure that’s not crumbling).

After a wipe down with a clean towel, we were ready to prime. Based on a deep and meaningful conversation with the pro at our local paint desk, we chose this oil-based Clean Metal Primer to do the job. We obviously wanted something that not only covered the existing rust but helped prevent more – plus it would make the whole thing ready for paint that would last.

It’s very thin (read: drippy) so make sure your floors are well protected! We used small foam rollers to cover most of the large surfaces, and then a cheap chip brush to get under the lip and around the actual clawfeet. It’s also pretty stinky, so we opened every window, put on all the fans, and kept our masks on for this step too.

There was a moment when we were watching the primer dry where we considered just painting it white. It was so refreshing to see it all clean and “new” looking that we were very tempted. However, the room itself is very white (white floor tiles, white trim, white ceilings, white shower tile, and white inside the tub), so we thought a darker accent in the space would actually be really nice to break things up. Plus, the interior finish is a tiny bit off-white (you can sort of tell in the photo below), so matching the outside exactly would’ve made the whole thing a bit creamier than we wanted (which might have clashed with the bright white floor tiles). With all of those factors urging us to go deeper and more dramatic with the outside of this tub, we considered 45,731 paint swatches (just kidding, it was only 45,721).

You probably spotted some of our contenders a few photos up. We considered a whole range of colors for the outside of the tub, but we landed on Riverway by Sherwin-Williams because it was a pretty deep blue with a heavy dose of gray and a hint of green. All of the straight taupes or grays felt a little too boring for a room with such a playful floor pattern, and we wanted to go noticeably darker than the little accent tiles in the floor so it didn’t look like we were trying to match it or skew too “baby blue” everywhere. Also, ignore how dirty these tiles look. They have since been scrubbed within an inch of their life.

After choosing that color, we actually had to have it color matched at Lowe’s in this Anti-Rust Armor paint since it came so highly recommended from the paint pro we chatted with (it’s moisture and stain resistant and has some additional rust prevention built into it – so they thought it was the best bet for our tub holding up longterm). The literal description online says its great for “appliances, playground equipment, mailboxes, and tanks.” I know they probably mean things like propane tanks, but I got a good laugh imagining someone painting a giant military tank by hand with this stuff.

Oh and this paint was also pretty stinky (hence the masks we donned again for this step) but it went on much thicker than the primer did. Once again we used small foam rollers for most of it, and then we used a brush meant specifically for oil-based paints to get between the toes. Basically we gave our tub a pedicure.

A few people have asked why we chose to make the feet the same color, rather than accenting them with a white, silver, or gold finish. We just looked at all of our inspiration photos of clawfoot tubs (because you know I’ve pinned like ten million since we bought this house) and we liked the two-tone look better than a three-tone effect. That’s definitely something you can go for if you like that extra foot-bling though! It can look really cool too.

You can tell in these photos that the outside isn’t perfectly smooth – you can still see the subtle topography of the old finishes beneath the fresh coat of blue. We’re actually kinda happy that it will feel like a tub that has been in this house for decades instead of some new replica that we brought in, so we’re totally cool with that dappled texture – and the glossy shine from the fresh paint is a nice counterpart.

Dappled dots or not, it’s certainly a huge improvement! So for around $50 and a fair amount of sweat, we got something that looks pretty darn close to this Rejuvenation clawfoot tub that retails for $3,300!

I’m gonna hold off on sharing any more “afters” for now, mainly because we haven’t taken any. But late last week our plumber came back to install the faucet and connect the tub (and remove the cardboard!) so word from him is that it’s ready for use! We have to skip our weekly visit since the floors are being sealed and need time to cure before anyone walks on them, so we’re just over here holding our breath until we can go back over to the house and see the tub all hooked up (and the floors all refinished). You know I’ll take like ten million pictures for you guys, so stay tuned!

Psst – Wanna read more about this beach house rehab project of ours? Click here to see everything we’ve done for the past year to get it to this point!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub appeared first on Young House Love.

How To Refinish An Old Clawfoot Tub published first on http://ift.tt/2qxZz2j