I just couldn't wait

Lucky for me I got my camera back last night. So I thought I would give all of you a sneak peak at the stairs and some of the work we have done around the house. We are not completely finished with the stairs, but we are binished with most of the molding, windows, baseboards, etc. Here is your teaser photo:

It looks sooo much better.
We still have some of the molding to put back up and some painting to touch up but just look at that color and finish on the wood.

We've also been stripping wood with refinsher in in the dining room.
Here is a before and after:



I spray painted the heat grates. They were a lovely brown before and I sort of antiqued them if you will. I didn't want to spray them silver so that they stuck out like a sore thumb yet I didn't want them to blend right into the wood. They almost look brand new.


It's sorta tough to tall but it makes a difference.

And finally- our newly inulated/ sheet rocked guest bedroom:

Almost Done

On Friday I had the day off and decided to finish the stairs. In 4 miserable hours I got the last of the sanding completed on the stairs! We are almost finished polying the side trim/ banisters/ etc. The stairs we are going to do every other stair and riser so that we don't have to lease the house after we put on stain or poly. They look amazing so far and they aren't even finished. I can't believe that the project is almost over- and thank god for that. I'll post photos once it's complete. Unfortunately I still don't have my camera but plan on getting it back this week. Get ready to be impressed.

More work complete

Last weekend I finished removing stain and poly (more like old motor oil) from the left side of the dining room trim. Tonight I will be putting the final coat of poly on. It was a long tedious process and I think I'll be taking a small break from refinishing wood. Still much better than sanding! Which reminds me, we need to get back to it this weekend and just get those stairs over with once and for all. It's so dreadful. I might just be making it worse than it is though.



Quentin re insulated the walls in the gues bedroom and installed new sheet rock. It looks so good. Next we will be re sheet rocking the ceiling in there- my favorite least favorite thing to do. Oh and the coolest thing- and by far the easiest/ most fun, would be that I sprayed the heting grates in the living room and dining room. I didn't want them to pop so much so I sprayed them an antiques brown color rather than brushed nickel. They look so amazing. Once I get my camera back I'll post some pictures.

What was I thinking

I thought you had to sand old work work to get it smooth and even. Was I ever wrong. I have antique wood refinisher. You take the refinisher dip some steel wool in it and rub in a circular motion on the wood and the old finish comes right off. Look at one of the floor boards I just redid!
Before:

After:

And this only has 1 coat of poly on it. It looks so good with 1 coat that we decided to just use 2 coats of poly on the wood we are refinishing this way. It's amazing. The wood is even smoother than the wood we have been refinishing with a sander. This is the way to go people!

Oh we also have been scraping... ahem, I have been scraping all of the wall paper in the guest bedroom. Here is a not so great photo:

Here are the finished windows above the stairs:

What a difference!

And all the while here is Roscoe enjoying the a fire while we work.

We just can't stop

Starting new projects that is. Last weekend I made a trip out to Home Depot to grab some stuff. During my trip I got some wood refinisher. You use some steel wool and this product and it takes the old finish right off. Last night we did a stretch of baseboard in the dining room. I already put the 2nd coat of stain on this morning. It looks really good! The wood is already condidition so it's not as raw as it usually is with sanding. I can't wait to show you guys pictures. This is what we are doing on the rest of the house. It's going to go so much faster!

We took a break

We took a break from sanding this weekend. We were both just so sick of inhaling and cleaning dust week after week. We finished all of the stain and poly coats on the windows above the stairs and they look really good! We also began stripping the pink/ purple butterfly wallpaper in what used to be the outdated wood paneling room. We pulled out the old gross insulation and reinsulated as well. This weekend we are going to put up some sheet rock and do some hole/ ceiling repair as well. We will also do a little more sanding. Grr.

This just infuriates me!

Sorry to bring politics into this blog but I am just really sad today. How on earth could groups of people who have been discriminated against and have been fighting for equality their entire lives vote for prop 8? This is disgusting.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/11/05/what-civil-rights-victory/

Moving along

Last night we finished sanding the windows above the stairs. We put the 1st coat of stain on last night and I put the 2nd coat on this morning before I went to vote- Ambitious, I know. I forgot how much I hate the smell of stain. We are going to have to do this bits and peices at a time because your hands cramp pretty bad while you put it on. Mine do anyway. Here are the photos of before and after on the stain.

Stairs


The stain was wet when I took the photo so it looks like it's on there pretty heavy- but I assure you within 6-8 hours it will be ready for it's 1st coat of poly.

After we are done with this... In like 6 months to a year. We will start refinishing the rest of the wood work


PS. These photos are a little large. Just click on them to view the full photo. Oops.

So close

This is now the 3rd weekend we have spent sanding the stairs. Granted we only sand 1 day out of the weekend. That's about all we can handle. We have the stairs and the baseboard and windows near the stairs sanded with the coarse grit. We even bought a paint scraper with a carbide blade to get the corners of the steps that were unreachable with the sander. Now it's time to go back over them with the fine and very fine sand paper next weekend. Hopefully we will be able to get that done in 1 day. That's definately some wishfull thinking but you never know. We would like to get the 1st coat of poly on everything before we leave for Thanksgiving.

I am so happy this project is almost over. We have so much motivation this time compared to when we sanded and stained the buffett. Now we know what we were getting ourselves into and know that the best thing you can possibly do is just keep pushing yourself until the job is done. If you wait and take weekends off you only make the job more dreadful for yourself. That's why alot of people have unfinished projects. I won't be one of those people! I'll have photos of progess for you tomorrow. Get ready to be amazed!