Musical Stairs

When I got home tonight the stairs had moved from the front porch to the kitchen porch,
and this is why. We're setting up for floor sanding. Yea! Unfortunatly I haven't burned this new location into my memory and made a bit of a fool of myself leaving for work. Dale was kind enough to remind me the stairs had moved before I made it all the way out the door and flew off the front porch.

Here's the living room all cleared out.

The foyer has a few odds and ends yet, and Dale is finishing up stripping the big window. But after that we're go for sander rental.

Here's poor Norman on the outside looking in.

I bet if I was to open the cupboard with the cat cookies he'd rip through that plastic in seconds flat.

He takes after his mother when it comes to "cookies".

The Baby Won't Have to Sleep in a Drawer!

We spent Saturday night arranging the furniture in the big bedroom next to ours and putting the crib together.


I also got some of the things up on the walls like this cute little clock Tim's mom bought for us. The helicopter is supposed to swing back and forth, but it's too heavy for the mechanism.

It's still cute though.

Tiling Tiny Tiles

Here's Tim starting to lay the tiny tiles for our down stairs bathroom floor. Don't worry, he didn't do the whole floor at that funny angle. I made him turn for the picture to avoid a butt-crack shot.

Don't ask what the rolling pin is for. I don't know and it's probably a trade secret that's better left a secret. How much you want to bet my next batch of cookies will have a funny crunch to them :)

Still Missing Those Cute Little Hangers

The other night Tim got the few pieces of baseboard that was missing from the baby's closet in place. He then installed the cheap closet system we had bought a few months ago. I did my first laundry load of baby cloths and now I just need to make it into town to buy some of those tiny little hangers.

The place we ordered our crib from called last week and said it was being shipped and we could expect it in this week. Exciting!

It's Hard to Believe...

that after starting this project with enough trim work to fill an entire two car garage this is what we are down to to finish. It's kind of sad in a way.

The Downstairs Bathroom Floor (Kind Of)

Here's the floor for the downstairs bathroom. It's cut out and ready to be installed.
The black tiles in the corners will be a boarder that runs along the entire white cut out section.

Sycamore Pocket Doors

This is the only set of pocket doors in the house. It is a set of double doors that separates the living room from the library.
They are interesting because they are half quarter sawn oak (the living room side) and half what we believe to be sycamore (it was written on the back of some of the library woodwork and it's definitely not oak).

Neither side is vaneered, the doors were cut in half and the two sides fastened to each other some how.

It's Not Pink

My lovely mom read the post about the lack of progress in the downstairs bathroom and volunteered to come over and paint it for us.

I had been gushing about the lovely pink color I picked out to everyone for weeks.
But it turns out it's not pink.

We don't really know what color it is. It's not really an orange or tan. Or a purple or blue. And it's definitely not pink.

Tim loves it. He thinks it's a very Victorian color. I'm just disappointed. I had really gotten my hopes up for this pink.

Back on Track

Thanks for the "Ctrl+F5" tip Greg! It was genius.
I believe last I left off the stairway was being stripped.

This shot was taken from the basement stairwell. There had previously been rows of 2x4s nailed up that covered the back of the stair panels.

Tim tore those out and numbered all of the panels that were able to come out so he could put them back in place again.

Also we lucked out. All but one of the panels that appeared to be missing had just fallen behind other panels. We had the missing panel reproduced. We got it to match pretty well, and we're not going to worry because the couch we have picked out will hide it anyway.

With the house open to the basement like this I had nightmares of the skunk that lives down there coming up the stairs and through one of the holes for a little visit. Ah, the joys of owning an old home.

Here's the stairway completely stripped...

and as it sits now.

The banister and panels are completely refinished. We are waiting to do the stair treads when we do the floor. We figure we'll want a stronger finished on those treads with the little one one the way.

Help!

I've lost my editor's toolbar in the create menu on Blogger. Does anyone know how to correct this or how I get in contact with someone from Blogger about this?

A Request from Dale

Tim told me Dale requested a before and after photo of the woodwork. The pieces are door trim from the living room. They are quarter sawn oak from what we can tell.

The piece on the left is the "after" and the piece on the right is the "before". I know, it's kind of backwards, but Tim took the picture, not me.

But you just don't get the full effect of the difference until you touch the finish.

Here's Dale in his workshop/our living room working on the stairway panels.

Stairway Under Way

Tim started stripping the foyer stairway. He's trying out a "new to us" product, a furniture refinisher. He's been very happy with how it takes the old finish out of hard to clear areas like the carved details and dental molding with just a spray bottle.
Tim used the furniture refinisher for all of the posts too.
See doesn't it clean out that dental molding nicely?
This photo shows the stairs stripped as well. He used our old stand by Dad's paint stripper for these easier to strip flat surfaces.