Fishtown Bathroom 02

Client: Clint Woodside
Location: Fishtown, Philadelphia

My immediate instinct upon stepping onto Clint's third floor was to come back with a ball of yarn and let it unravel as I made my way through the labyrinth of walls. A minotaur in the back closet wouldn't have been a surprise.

With Clint's help we came up with a layout creating a masterbedroom/bathroom combination, incorporating salvaged windows, salvaged bathtub, millwork made from salvage wood, and a sliding barn door made from salvage wood.

Getting there wasn't the easiest – loose insulation laden with with a hundred years of dust had us in full respirator gear, bagging the stuff. Water-damaged brick and faulty wiring had to be shored up or removed, and rafter tails rotted out by water and termites had to be rebuilt.

But get there we did. We built the door in the shop from timbers that used to be part of trusses from Philadelphia's Academy of Music. The bathtub came from a house on the Main Line, and the southern yellow pine used for the millwork came from joist material in North Philadelphia.

Now when you go there's the instinct to stretch out your beach towel and sunbathe on the sand-colored floors. And as for the minotaur, well, there are enough narrow halls and small closets in Philadelphia's rowhomes, I'm sure he'll find another labyrinth to haunt.

Client Testimonial

"Wow! That about sums it up. Greensaw came, they saw and they conquered. Starting with a space bifurcated with awkward walls, the Green Team waded through batts of dusty insulation, rotted out rafters, and chaotic ductwork to give me a master bedroom and bathroom that surely is unique to the city, state, country – and probably the world."