Painting the stairs

Been a long time since the last post.  Here is a quick update of a project i finished a while ago. When we refinished the floors we had them only refinish the tops of the stairs because i planned on painting the risers and stringers.  I finally got around to it a weekend Jon was out of town. It was a much longer and more involved project than i anticipated but i'm very pleased with the result. 

before - with some wood filler added and sanded

inside update

we are much more moved in now.  about 99.9% of our stuff is unpacked and placed where it belongs. The real accomplishment of the week was that we cleared out the garage enough for us to get both our cars in. It's still a mess - maybe i'll take a picture of it some day for you - but they are in and the door closes so i'm satisfied.

At any rate, i know the masses have been wanting more pictures of the place so, here are the photos you've been waiting for Mom!

view from the front door in the foyer

Painting Progess

We spent the weekend painting, and i mean the WHOLE weekend - 11 hours Saturday and 9 hours Sunday.  Fortunatrely we had some helpers to make it all easier.

Teamwork in my office

Ewa working hard - and even came back Sunday to do MORE

Mirror Options

Jon was out of town this weekend, and gave me leave to make the mirror decision myself, so i spent the time focused on finding some solutions.  I hit up HomeGoods and a few thrift shops in search. Here is what i found.

Mirror Hunt!

OMG it is hard to find a bathroom mirror!  I mean, i'm only looking for something spectacular, unique, fun, classy, period-appropriate and functional - why should that be so hard?

ok, so i am perhaps being overly particular about this selection but i strongly feel that in BOTH of our bathrooms we have made simple, elegant, classic selections for all the things like tile, faucets, vanity, light fixtures etc.

Upstairs Bath

Progress Update

It's been awhile since i gave a progress update - with a bunch of progress pics - so here it is! You'll see a lot of open walls where electrical work is being done and a few widened doorways as well as a good amount of construction accouterments and Jon popping in and out of the frame.

This is the eat-in side of the kitchen with a view to the living room and dining room

here is jon in the kitchen, standing about where the sink was in the old pictures

Picking Tile

In addition to lights, we have picked all our tile choices for the house, too.  They are, for the most part, simple and safe choices.  and we are both happy with that.  here is a little tour of all the different tiles we considered.

Upstairs Bath: This one only had a little back and forth.  Once we had moved on from our brief hope of finding the perfect mid-modern piece to serve as a vanity

 and accepted the reality of using a stock vanity

Light Choices

Thank you all so much for you feedback and suggestions on stair and entry way lighting! it was really helpful to have some thoughts on our ideas and get new ideas and suggestions too!

Jon and i spent all this weekend working on finding finishes for everything.  We looked at tile and carpet and toilets and sinks and lights and i don't even know what else.  Most importantly we settled on a lighting plan.

We decided that for light fixtures we should go the more cost conscious route, as those are really easy to change out ourselves should we ever decide to upgrade or want something different.  We want to spend more of our finishes budget now on things that are harder to change later, like tile.

That said, we have ALMOST every fixture picked out.  We are still deciding on a handful but for now, here are the lights for our house!


Master bedroom and closet - this is about 75% confident. we like the multi-light style for the closet and a small simple fixture for the bedroom.

Final decision - vanity

so, i mentioned the epic search.  i visited dozens thrift stores, scoured craigslist, krrb and other sites for hours.  I wanted to share with you some options we found, to give you an idea of the search.  of all my searching these are the best specimens i could find... each with their own flaws.

 a little small - too many drawers - it's hard to modify a piece that is built of drawers, when cabinets would be easier for the pipes and plumbing - we'd have almost no storage left.

i like the look a lot but in addition to too many drawers, it has a laminate top - not a good look, i want wood.