Clever, practical birthday present

The practical reinventor loves to sew.  After eight years of working pretty solidly on it, she's pretty good at it.  Last year's resolution was to make clothes rather than buy them, so during the year, she made all her own knickers, worked out how to make t-shirts and continued with blouses and work tops.
For her birthday, the creative reinventor did this:

This started off as a bar with a couple of stools. 
The stools went off to Bolt Coffee, and this started its transformation.

It's the right height, and has a handy shelf, but it wasn't long or wide enough.

Or pink enough.

The pink was pretty easy to take care of, but the long and wide bit required a trip the to Green and Orange Temple to Lost Weekends for a sheet of MDF.

The two screwed together didn't fit through the door, so it had to be assembled in situ.

Et voila! A pattern cutting table!

Which is what you get for the sewist who has almost everything.

It's since had a cutting grid glued to its top, which is a huge help for accurate fabric cutting.

As a sustainable present, it ticks a lot of boxes:  something that will be used for years and years, very little of it was new, and it was extremely thoughtful.

Favourite things

The practical reinventor has finally gotten her sewing machine sprinkler.  It's a late 1950s Auto So that had its cords removed by someone with no respect. 

It came to Marmalade Cottage via an op shop, discovered under a shelf, covered in dust, five minutes to closing.  It was $5.  It was quite a sophisticated machine in its day, with a variety of decorative stitch cams. 

The foot went to another vintage machine, and the bakelite plugs have been put into a drawer of interesting bits and pieces, perhaps to have another life too.

It's the perfect combination of two of the practical reinventor's favourite things: sewing and gardening.

What we're working with

Despite everyone's warnings, the settlement went through exactly when and how it was supposed to, and Marmalade Cottage is ours.

Since there's so much to do, we got straight into it.  With the help of P and D, we drank a bottle of Moet, then we ripped out the lino.

Over the weekend, there's been a small army of helpers and we've managed to get the walls washed - orange power is brilliant at removing 50 years of cigarette smoke residue.  Most of the floors are sanded and waxed, the furniture we're keeping is stacked out of the way.  We have a functional back door and the revolting old stove is in a skip.

Today the electricians started the rewiring, which involves cutting lots of holes in walls.  Tomorrow the rewiring will be finished, and the plumbers start.  After that the house will be liveable, and that's when we move in. 

Meanwhile here are some before photos.

 What we'll wake up to every day, minus the horrible curtains and the hospital green paint.

 This is the original kitchen.  It seems to have been used as only a dining room.  We'll put in a sink and stove, lots of shelves and good lighting and it will be a kitchen again.

 This is our loungeroom fireplace.  Under that lino are floorboards, they're not great, but they're sanded and waxed now and they'll do. 

 This is truly hideous - cracked and filthy and it doesn't drain properly.  We have a new pedestal basin (one of the few new things we've bought) and taps found at a garage sale for $15.  We'll paint and install a toilet and the bathroom will be transformed!

 This is what will greet us everytime we come in the front door.  We've cleaned off the grime, but it's still rather green. Once we've finished with it, the feature pieces will be glossy blue, a shade called foresight, and the rest white.

 The party toilet.  Not working now due to extreme neglect, the details of which are best not mentioned.  To be fixed shortly.

 This is the old kitchen sink, installed, we think, around the 1940s.  There is no hot water.  It's in the built in verandah bit, you can just see the edge of the old back door on the right. We're leaving it there, as it'll be useful for washing hands from gardening or rinsing off vegies just picked.

This is a horrible room, poky and dark.  Right now it's floor to ceiling with furniture and boxes, but once we've organised the rest of the house it will be the practical one's sewing room.  We have an over-the-top pink glass chandelier for it!

More to come!