The Empty House Studio: Preparing for the Worst...or just fixing it.

So what about the house?!

I am excited to bring you fresh tales of the new home-liver... wait, that doesn't quite sound right. But, if you've read our "The Story" tab, you know that part of this venture involves readying the house for the wonderful and generous home owners, my cousins, who made this alternative arts space experiment possible. So, yes, I am a 'new home-liver' not a 'new home-owner.' I am working out the kinks for them before they get here.

There is a non-working vent fan in the attic with loose metal strips. In certain winds, they flap and bonk. I didn't know about the flapping and bonking.

One windy morning at 4am, I woke with a start... Someone with a box of metal torture devices? The Terminator? Robocop? I thought my time had come. This was it. And metal was going to be involved.

Imagining that someone had just set down a large metal object at the base of the attic stairs, I sat up, stiff as a board. After hearing it a few more times and doing some 4am deductive reasoning, I fell back asleep. The next morning, while dressing, I heard the blasted sound again and traced it to the loose metal vent flaps.

They are dirty and gross and extremely inconvenient to get to. After talking to H., I wove twine between the blades, bending one fan blade and knocking out one vent flap in the process... I also stuffed material in there and wrapped it up with duct tape. Right. It doesn't dare make a peep anymore. After telling Cousin and Husband, they suggested replacing the awkward gaping hole in the side of their house with a porthole! Like from a ship! How fun are they?! So, after looking at porthole's on Ebay (who knew?!), we are in the process of finding a wiling carpenter to tackle the project. We have one willing soul, I believe. A Baltimore based contractor who does beautiful work. More on that later.

The first BIG project that Cousin and Husband are tackling is the family bathroom. The only full bath is a cute, cramped space. The awesome claw foot tub is a keeper but possibly for a bigger space. The lack of storage space is made up for by two different cheap cabinets that fill too much space. Here is the bathroom as we found it...

From the entrance...

The two cabinets cramping the toilet and window.

That cute bathroom mirror is, unfortunately, not actually one unit. Its a mish mash of left over wood turned into a built-in vanity. I saved the hardware but it will be replaced.

Notice the 'fish shelf' behind the shower curtain...Left for us by the previous owners... Any takers?

No wonder they painted... faux (thin plastic) baby blue marble? Bleh. But painting it fleshly peach? Not sure they improved the situation...

Oh, and a faux bright blue marble border.

So, we have a contractor coming in to redo this bathroom into a family friendly and bungalow appropriate little space. After one contractor estimated an exorbitant amount for the redo, Cousin went with a contractor whose work she's seen and liked. He and his brother are coming in to make beautiful things happen!

Meanwhile, the bathroom must be 'readied' for its makeover. Clean the canvas! It was pretty satisfying taking out some of the STUFF. More to come...