Double Check

Let's see, before you spend hours upon hours painting spindles, and deciding you can strip the existing railing and re-stain it, you might want to make sure you can take it apart without damaging the whole thing.  Yes you see, it needs to be taken off, so that we can replace the treads.  Except we attempted tonight and could not get it to budge.
So tomorrow we will really have to tackle removing it, and I'm thinking there might be a few casualties. As in we might be buying a new railing and new spindles.  Well that will only add about $500+ to the project.  So let's all pray tonight that we will be successful tomorrow without doing major damage.  Okay maybe we should stick to praying for world peace, and we will just hope that all goes well tomorrow.
And at least if we have to replace the spindles we can upgrade to nice black metal ones, except that only makes the price go up even more.  But hey I'm trying to look on the bright side if needed.

Lots of work with no gain

First I have to show you my DIY mishap, except I'm not exactly sure how I got this very large bruise on my arm.  I believe it came from unloading and carrying the 14 foot ladder we rented the other weekend.  It looked bad, but didn't hurt much, until I made the unfortunate mistake of landing the edge of a 5 gallon bucket of paint right in the middle of it.  Now it's raised up, still ugly looking, and hurts at the slightest touch.  Here's hoping it goes away sometime soon.

On another note.  We have been busy the past week doing little projects for the entryway.

Things like painting the spindles a new lighter trim color, except you can't even really tell they have been painted.  In the picture the 2 spindles on the right are actually a little bit lighter than the 2 on the left.  Nothing like a 3 hour project that doesn't show any results.

I also had to paint all the trim, which meant 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of white trim paint.  It was a debate as to buy new primed boards that would need to be cut, or spend all the time painting the existing boards.  Even though it took 4 hours to paint, I decided not to waste the perfectly good boards just because I wanted a different color, not to mention it was money not spent.

We also received the new square newel posts from our friend Toby who has been busy putting in many hours making these and the new oak treads for the stairs.

I agreed to stain the pieces, and after 3 hours of staining and 3 more coats to go, I'm wondering why I said I would do it myself.

But the pieces are looking great already.

I still need to attempt to strip the old stain off the railing, so it can match the newly stained posts and stairs.  I have a feeling that it is going to be a very toxic smelly mess.  But we are getting closer to having the project wrapped up!

How long has this carpet been up?

We removed the carpet in the house before we even moved in over a year ago.  But we left it on the stairs since we were going to be changing them into oak treads.  Well we are finally getting around to removing the carpet.

Is it just me, or does the rough pine look better than the crappy carpet?

Entryway

How do you change a chandelier that hangs from a 17 foot ceiling?  How do you paint 17 foot high walls?  Well you have to borrow or rent a 14 foot step ladder, which basically takes up the whole space.

It took a full day to edge and roll the entryway with 2 coats of paint, and by full day I mean from 8am till 8pm.  We had just finished up the first coat of edging when we stopped for lunch.  We had picked up a 12 pack of Bud Light Lime, you need beer when you paint, according to Jesse.  I had two beers with my lunch, and by the time we started painting the walls, I was a little drunk (I guess it doesn't take much anymore).

So I got to hold the paint tray when needed on the ladder.

While we had the ladder we decided to change the chandelier.

We had to get up early Sunday morning to get it done in time to return the ladder and not accrue a late fee.

And replacing the chandelier went well, we got it done in time with only a little bit of sweat trying to hold it up as it got wired and attached to the ceiling.

Now we are about half way done with the space.

Bella's Room

In addition to working on the entryway and the exterior, I am also working on Bella's bedroom.  I bought the paint during Sherwin Williams paint sale, so now I need to get busy working on some details before I can start painting.  I need to prime and paint the trim, as hers in the only room with dark wood trim.  And then we also need to create a closet system, and install a ceiling fan or new light fixture.
We have also decided to upgrade Bella to a full size bed.  Her toddler bed has such a hard mattress that she has been using for the past 3 years.  And it seems so mean to keep her on it.  Since her crib changes into a full size bed frame, we are going to go for it.  I will be creating some kind of system to keep her safely inside the beds perimeter so she doesn't fall out.  But the new bed will also be a great place to change her, as it isn't quite safe to keep using the top of the dresser.  Not to mention the dresser is not so silently begging us to keep the 30 pound toddler off of it.

This is Bella's new color scheme, pink and coral.  The big question is whether to spend the $160 for the quilt or to take a big leap and try to sew one myself.  My sewing machine has the quilting guides, so I'm thinking I might go for it.  Of course finding the time is always the big setback.

Entry Way Tile

We finished our tiling project a couple of weekends ago.  It was a long 3 days of working.  Now we have all the finishing touches to do, to include: painting trim, painting the walls, adding batten board, and replacing the chandelier.  Not to mention refinishing the handrail, adding new posts, and changing the stairs to wood.  So in other words we still have most of the work left to do.  We hope to get the project finished in the next month or two.  Then after we paint the exterior of our house, we might take a break from doing home projects for a little while.  Well, until I just can't stand the bathroom anymore and decide to take a sledgehammer to it, that is.