What's the best way to do it and still not be out of power for days?
My brother is wanting to get his house rewired, but doesn't want to be without power for days. I told him he might could put in his new breaker box and hook all his old wires up, then run and wire one breaker at a time. Maybe? I've only done one house and it was vacant. He has no ground wires and a fuse box now.

It will be easier for him to move.

If you have room you could build the new service and swap it over at some point,temporarily feeding one off the other till you got it all straightened out.

What do you mean by rewire? Change a panel? Gut it and start over?

I've swamped a bunch of panels in one day. Customer would be out of power for 1\2 day tops.

The best advice I can give is trace down all the circuits first and LABEL EVERYTHING! It will save you hours of frustration and prob some repenting.

Unless he is a certified electrician I would advise him not to do it himself.

Truth!

It's an old two story house build in 1800's and its been wired partially twice, but he wants to install one large breaker box and rewire the downstairs. So all new everything. We're gonna do some of it ourself because we can, but we will hire an electrician for the main and prob to wire the box too. I can run wire and wire lights and plugs no problem. Just wondering how a re-wire normally progressed.

X2 lol.

Globe are yawl planning on remodeling whole house. Cause it is a LOT of work if you aint. I dont even know how you would run wire for light on 1st floor if you didnt put in another ceiling.

If I was you, I would get the electrician that I planned on doing the service work out to the house. While he's there I would mention the work you plan on having done ( not mentioning that you plan on doing it yourself) and see how he would do it.
The reason is. When you ask how we would do it, Makes it very hard to answer due to the fact that there is not a good answer, withou (A) looking at it (B) knowing your expectations, and limitations (C) knowing exactly what your abilities are.

Just because someone can run a wire and hook up a device, dosnt mean that they should.(Im not directing that at you, just in general)
I had a dude last year ask me some questions about wiring his cabin at the lake.I told him he needs to get someone out there that knows what there doing. He did the work himself, anyways. The he tells me 6 months ago, it caught on fire. He said," for some reason it kept tripping the breaker, so I put a bigger breaker on it." I asked did he want me to come look at it. He said "Naa, I think I got it this time."

As it is now, the wire is going up the wall and in the baseboards.
May actually run conduit for the ceiling lights and run plugs back in the baseboards or under the house. Not remodeling at all, he just wants a more modern breaker box and new wire with a ground. He ain't gonna move, LOL!!

I did a ton of electrical work on a house in Hammondville AL. We were told it is certified as the oldest house in Al. and was built before the civil war.

It was a nightmare to work on. They wanted floor plugs all through the bottom floor. We burnt up a hole saw for every plug! 2 1\2" oak floor planks. They don't make wood like they used too!

I would recomend having one certified elctrician do all the work. I have been doing residential electrical work for 12 years and I don't even like finishing work other experienced electricians start, not that the other is wrong, most electricians have their own way of doing stuff and it is confusing to come in on a job that is half finished.

X2.