So That's What The Garage Floor Looks Like

For 2.5 years, the space commonly known as the garage, has been used as a dumping room for all our construction waste.

Finally, we did our first big city waste management pickup and it scooped up about 1/3 of our debris.  I imagine by next year we will have nearly most of the garbage cleared out.  I've been taking pictures and contemplating the uses of this room ever since Bagster started having their $5k contest.  If you're a DIY homeowner, you should check it out.

We're fortunate to have a garage.  As you know, most old homes did not have garages since there was no such thing as a car in those early days.  According to the city records, the "garage" was actually a beauty salon of some type in the early part of the 20th century.  It makes some sense since the house is on a street with a lot of walking traffic.  But why a beauty salon?

According to this makeup artist in Chicago, "Around the Victorian era, there was a decline in makeup and it came to be associated with actresses and prostitutes. Genteel women did not like to tamper with the natural color of the skin and the respectable thing to do in lieu of using artificial makeup was to make face masks at home from natural ingredients like egg yolks, oatmeal, rosewater, and honey.
Beauty regime of women included, plucking the eyebrows, use of castor oil on the eyelashes, dusting the nose with rice powder and buffing the nails. No lipstick was used, but they did apply clear pomade for the sheen. The rosy tint to the cheeks could be attributed to some vicious pinching of the cheeks or red beet juice."


Ouch.

Continuing, "20^th century saw a revolution in the field of makeup. Women made their own mascara where hot beads of wax were placed on the tips of the eyelashes. T.L. Williams came out with the first mascara and named it after his sister Mabel. Today, you may recognize this brand as Maybelline. In 1914, the pancake makeup was first introduced by Max Factor and it was during this decade that the first of its kind pressed powder was introduced. This was followed by pressed powder blush and the metal case for lipsticks, and then, there was no looking back…"

Possible that an early owner of our Vic was jumping on the makeup bandwagon.  The floor of the garage space currently has this neat tile color arrangement too good for any car to just sit on.  There was also a pipe for a water source of some kind.


 So I've drummed up a few PhotoShop pics trying to imagine what this space could be.  I'm partial to the indoor garden idea myself.

Yeah, I dream big. Most likely it will be a garage and a workout gym.

Any suggestions would be helpful too!