Bathrooms in Old Houses

This post  was first written as part of the project of doing up a Renaissance townhouse in the Ore Mountains. Alas, this project, like so many others, never came to pass. However, I think it's interesting in a general sort of way.

Racist (or is it culturalist?) that I am, I'd never dreamt that I'd find ever pleasure in things that come out of Morrocan bathhouses. Well, I was wrong.

But let me digress first.

I always found the goal to create a "period" bathroom in a historic house, with the possible exception of Victorian houses, futile. After all, they simply DID NOT HAVE bathrooms in the sense we have today then. Roman luxuries don't count. And even if one would be hell-bent on creating a period bathroom older than the Victorian period, I doubt they'd want to carry tubs and hot and cold water to the kitchen every time they feel like bathing, let alone empty nonflushing water closets and dispose of the content.

But I have found something that might create at least the FEEL of a bathroom in a Renaissance house, and here, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Tadelakt. Tadelakt is a waterproof or nearly waterproof lime plaster, the traditional application of which includes being polished with a semi-precious stone and treatment with a special soap to acquire its final smooth, even shining, finish and water resistance and it stems, well, from the bathhouses of Morocco.

Here are some pictures from the Tierrafino website.









There are two minor throwbacks: Tadelakt is prohibitively expensive and incredibly difficult to apply. I am looking for alternatives, but they will be hard to find, or so I fear.

By the way, did you know that an Englishman who went by the eminently apt name Thomas Crapper (1836 - 1910) is credited for inventing the flushing toilet, or having at least added considerably to its development? Blogging is SO educational!