Almost Ready For the Holidays

The stair are complete! The trim is back on the baseboards and it all just looks amazing. I am so happy this is complete, and what a great result! We also got our Christmas tree up. It still needs a skirt but I'm having a tough time pay $40 for something that will probably just get peed on. I think we may just use pee pads for a skirt this year ;)


There is a little dust on the stairs from putting the trim back up.


Doesn't it look great? This will be my last post about the stairs I just wanted everyone to see the photos of our victory one last time- complete! Oh yeah, check out my favorite comparison yet.


What a difference!

they're done- almost

Finally!!! That took up about the last 2 months of my life. But they are done and they look amazing. Just 3 more coats of poly on a few of the stairs. In case you forgot what the stairs looked like before we began here is a refresher.



Why on earth would we ever refinish such beauty, right?

View from the top

View from the landing


Just a few more coats of poly and they are complete. We decided to stain them a little darker just because the stairs had so many imperfections from all of the staples/scratches. I think they look pretty darn amazing!

Hooray!

The stairs should be done this weekend and I'll have photos for all of you on Monday!!!

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.

Hall paint

The paint in the hall is pretty much done. Just a few touch- ups left here and there. What a long tedious project. I have to take long breaks in between painting rooms. Everything is a mess until it's finished. Here's what the hall looks like now.
Sorry- these photos were taken at night time. It's a wee bit dark.

This is where the closet was ripped out:

The color is a continuation from the living room/ hall. I could have picked something sooo much cooler but I really have a tough time with picking colors. I think it looks pretty good. The floors are just driving me nuts now. We have these great finished walls and these ugly paint splatted, worn floors. November or early December they WILL be done. That means we start sanding the stairs next week. Yay- Can't wait (a little sarcastic).

We stripped paint off the porch windows this weekend. I've come to find that citrus stripper works so much better and faster than a heat gun. It's alot safer on or around glass as well. We'll hopefully sand that area while we work on the stairs. Who know- maybe not.

The speed of light

Not only did we prime the walls in the office last weekend, we also got both coats of semi gloss paint on the trim, the office painted and the hallway painted. We just have 1 more coat to do on the hall. I can't wait to post the photos- it looks amazing!

Once we are finished with this we are going to start sanding the stairs. We're both dreading this project. There is something about working with a sander that drys out your sinuses, eyes and makes you feel a little crummy over all. It's called saw dust. I'm just so happy that the steps will be done soon and we can enjoy them rather than dread them. We have come so far!

Happy Earth day!

I hope everyone does something special to take care of our good earth today. I'm happy to hear that people are still reading the blog. I was almost certain you had all given up on me. I'm posting a bunch of pictures today!

The stain is complete. He is what a bad photo of the buffet looks like- I took it without day light.



The final photo is the color change between the interior and the exterior of the buffett. I'm psyched to get some poly on there.




The stairs I'm working on are next. There are atleast 60 staples in each step so I continue to pull them whenever I think about it. I've also been scraping the wallpaper in the upstairs hallway so that the glues doesn't get all over what will soon be our gorgeous new floors.

And last but not least, the ugly floors left under the carpet we tore out. The floors in the office look pretty similar. We will be paying someone to come in and do these. It shouldn't be too bad.

I'll keep everyone posted on the stair progress- Grr....