The little Red Brick house, bathroom #1

Before Picture of Bathroom.

  In this case, wall to wall carpeting includes the bathroom.  It was a luxury touted in the seventies.  How long was that trend?  When did people come to their senses?  

We have been doing such tedious electrical work, so demolishing was quite satisfying.   In a day, we had most of the bathroom out including the crazy heavy cast iron vent and sewer pipes in the crawl space.  My dad really went to town on that cast iron.  

Looks like this much metal brings $50.00 at the recycler.  

My dad's wife, Mary, came by and commented that it would be better to take the wall down and put up new, clean drywall.  Such a perfect idea.  I would much rather tackle the drywall than the wallpaper glued on the old wall.  

 Here is the project as it stands now.  We altered the space by removing some hallway storage that was encroaching on the bathroom.  We will switch the vanity and toilette locations with each other.  Because we removed the extra storage, we can fit a vanity rather than the small sink.  

Feeling like I will go with a white tub this time around.... although the mint green tub has carried it's own for the last 60 years.  

Little Red Brick House, Red letter day #1

I don't want to put a date on it, but it has been almost two months since we closed on the house.  This depresses me a bit, but I have to take into account the few dresses I have finished, the kids we have some how gotten to and from school, and all of the various other things going on in our lives.  I haven't posted many pictures of the process because I have been stuck in the attic or crawl space that whole time.  Or at least it feels that way.  

I don't want to give the crawl space a bad wrap.  It is cozy and quite delightful because we have access to the whole house for our rewiring project.  We have pulled wire to every receptacle and light fixture in the house.  I am so excited to say that we have replaced every bit of the old wiring. 

During this process, we would finish wiring the living room and dad would proclaim, "Well, it is a red letter day".  It happened every few days when a milestone had been reached.  I started feeling like the wiring would just go on forever.  Until this week.  

You can tell by the big smile on my dad's face that we are getting closer.  Finally it was the moment we had been waiting for... the day we heated up the whole house by organizing and hooking up to the panel.  

 

I am going to sound a bit sentimental.... but just look at that box!  I love the feeling of tackling something so much bigger than my usual format of a gown.  Working on something the scale of a small house is so satisfying.  We will see how long this attitude lasts. 

The little Red Brick House that could

This is the story of a really lucky dressmaker who will be flip flopping a house.  This is an impossible dream I have had for years.  It is still a dream that compels me to do some pretty loud commuter singing on the way to the house in the morning.  I really can't describe the complete joy, stress, happiness, anticipation, and sense of doom I feel on an hourly basis.... and I love it!

This is the Living room.  I do love the brick and stove.  The space is cozy.  The room with the accordion doors will be walled up and turned into the master bedroom that it once was.  

A nice shot of the original bath and sink.  Love the fixtures.  

Details... the wallpaper has been partially removed at this moment.  

The front door will be staying.  

The kitchen.  

I am posting these so whoever is interested gets the feel for the house before anything has been done.  It is a very sweet home, which you can't create with shiny surfaces.  I do believe a home becomes sweet from the people who live their lives within.  

Here is the reason I get to live out this dream of mine...  my dad.  He might be the Coolest Dad Ever.  He is also retired and is a sucker for a good project.  He is so single minded, I can't get him to take a day off.  

Genetically we are similar and because of that we make a dangerous pair.  He will say, "Lets take out all of the electricity and replace it starting from the pole outside."  A  normal person would say, "I don't know about that, isn't it a bit overboard?"  But because I am my father's daughter, I say, "Perfect, let's do it!"  

This will be the first installment of the Dressmaker's Red Brick House Flip.  I know it isn't appropriate for a dress blog, but I do find so many similarities between homes and dresses.  Plus, my friends and family seem interested, so thank you for humoring me.