Renovation update: An auction house, once slated for demo, rebuilds room by room

About five years ago, we featured this auction house that was won by Laura Breisch, a local designer. After she got the house, she found out it was on the city’s demo list. Whoa. Photos of the home, which she won for $5,000 and her full account of the story can be found here.

We recently heard from Breisch, who has been working on the house a little at a time as a way to avoid debt. The house had been vacant for 30 years, except for some squatters here and there. She says the house needed all its guts put back in (it had been completely stripped) — plumbing, electricity, heating, cooling, insulation, etc.

One part of the house that’s in spectacular condition is the bathroom. It was recently featured on Apartment Therapy, and Breisch has shared the photos with Curbed.

Breisch used quartz on the wall, penny tiles, black slate herringbone (heated) floors, walnut butcher block, white subway tile, and quartz counters. As you can see, she chose an open shower (easy cleaning), a wall-mounted toilet, and the washer and dryer are located in the bathroom.

In regards to the current condition of the house, she says,

“We have two bedrooms somewhat finished, still need to install window and door moulding, and we're in the middle of installing a built-in window bench and cabinetry in my daughter's room. The first floor has been completely demoed for awhile. We've roughed in all new electrical and plumbing, just had all the windows replaced, and had the exterior walls insulated with spray foam. We do have appliances in place, and we do have two kitchen islands topped in soapstone, but it's still pretty rough since we had to wait to do anything else before the spray foam went in. Next up will be drywall throughout the entire first floor.”

The cats seem to be OK with the progress.

The next room, which will be a huge project, is the kitchen. She says that since they moved into the house in November 2015, they’ve used a makeshift kitchen: an electric griddle, a crockpot, a coffee maker, and the utility sink in the basement for doing dishes. She provided a rendering of the kitchen, plus photos of the space as it is now.

Provided by Laura Breisch, Making Home Interiors

We’ll keep you updated on the progress!