The house has been nicknamed “The Castle”.  A close friend, while helping us to demolish the house (READ: help the guys demolish the house while myself, mom and mother-in-law, shopped for a wedding dress), commented that the house is a brick house and is surrounded by a moat.  And so “The Castle” was born:

But before we even closed on the house we took down the ugly porch that was in the back. SUDDENLY the house was brighter:

We started with a 1950s/60s kitchen, that is now GONE:
 

UGLY laminate panelling that I took down the day after we closed on the house:

A gutted ugly 1960’s bathroom (I cannot WAIT for my soak in a new deep tub and the ability to step onto nice WARM floors):

The plumbing is replaced, the electrical will be finished tonight, hopefully, and next week the insulation guys and drywall guys are coming.   Things are progressing!  Now we are at the stage of picking tiles and flooring stain colours.