My stairway to heaven

We also managed to finish the steps and get the spindles painted.  Here is what the steps looked like before we moved in:

And here are the steps to date and dressed up for the Christmas holiday.  All the pine is real and taken from my trees outside.  I purchase 2 stems of red berries and shiny green stuff and divided them into 6 pairs of "stuff".  I just used wire to fasten it to the white pine and blue fir bundles and zip tied them on the spindles and added a green bow.  It smells great and looks charming too!

Eventually, I'll get around to re-staining the hardwood steps a darker color....

Stairway to Heaven... another chapter!

Again, here is a project that we have been working on for months! You may remember THIS HERE.  Well, I'm not done entirely, but the spindles and the stairway have been painted.  All that it left for me to do now is strip the varnish, sand and re-stain the banister and steps and put a good coat of poly to seal my hard work! I'm sure a few nights without sleep will have me the staircase of my dreams!  Oh, and I need to get some paint on the walls!

Wainscoting

I have been looking forward to this project for as long as I can remember! The first time we visited this house, I went home and began brainstorming ideas on how I would change it and what I would do differently; this was an idea that came to mind. I wanted tall beautiful wainscoting up the walls of the stairway and throughout the main living area to break up the height of the cathedral ceilings and accent the wall of windows in the living room. Finally, J cut up the wood and my secret ingredient to make this project extra special arrived after moths of picking and choosing and wheeling and dealing. Ahhh.... and here it is so far:

Isn't it wonderful?!?! Okay, here's how I did it. This project was VERY easy. I was dreading having to buy wallpaper glue and imagined the wallpaper dripping and not sticking but NO. It was easy as pie. What was hard was picking out the anaglypta. And forget using that word at Home Depot or Lowes. They thought I was sneezing and spasming at the same time. Say paintable wallpaper and they will direct you to some hideous crap. However, walk into Sherwin Williams and they still think you're sneezing but they can dig out an old dusty book and you can knock yourself out with choices. I checked their only anaglypta book out and for two weeks, searched the internet for the best look and best price. Here is the exact anaglypta I went with: http://www.creativewallcovering.com/pc/2ana-rd80029/anaglypta/Egon+Textured+Vinyl+Anaglypta+Paintable+Wallpaper.html
 I did buy it from Sherwin Williams because I couldn't beat their prices anywhere, not ebay, amazon, etc... I also looked everywhere specifically for an anaglypta border but couldn't find any that were wider than 4 or 5 inches. Our border is 6" so I just bought some striped anaglypta and cut the pattern at 6". I also learned a lot about paint-able wallpaper during the past few months so let me save you some trouble when you see the following words:

•   Anaglypta- it's actually been around forever! It was used in the Victorian period because it's pretty, decorative and can be cleaned easily. It's made of paper, feels like foam, should be used on smooth surfaces and relatively cheap. Expect to pay at least $40 a double roll. 
• Supaglypta- it's a little more ridged than anaglypta. It's better for rough surfaces like ceilings because it's more durable and feels kind of like poster board. It too has been around forever and costs about the same as the anaglypta. In fact, Supaglypta can be interchangeable with anaglypta. 
• Lincrusta- this is the mother of anaglypta. It was invented first in 1877 and used because it's super sanitary and can be washed easily. It's way more durable and actually hardens the longer it's on your walls, becoming more durable with time. It's main component is linseed oil and wood. It too is highly decorative and very beautiful but it will break your bank at $300+ a roll!!! 

 So there you have it! That's phase one of my future staircase and walls. J will be back painting this weekend to do the trim and molding and I can't wait to slap the main color on the walls!

My Half Finished Projects

I mentioned that my progress would be much slower with a 5 and 3 year old slowing me down. I can't work well into the night anymore and I think J is about sick of working on the house unless he's tearing things down. Forget clean up... that's apparently my job too. And I just haven't had the energy and spark to work into the wee hours of the morning. So here's what I've been doing. None of these projects are finished. I know. I know. I should probably work on one thing at a time. I hear you. But sometimes my wonderful hubby just likes to scare the crap out of me with the sound of a crashing wall. You'll see what I mean... OPENING UP OUR LIVING ROOM:

We decided to open up the formal living room and make the house more open and less choppy. The best way to do this was by removing the wall between the formal living room and the In-law Suite Master Bedroom. We saw no need for such a large guest room and wanted to have access to the double doors that led outside from that room. We still have yet to paint the formal living area and I haven't even begun to decorate the new space which we refer to the "family room" now. REMOVING THE CARPET FROM THE STEPS:

I did stay up into the wee hours of the morning with this project. It was not fun pulling out every staple and and nail. But, the effort was worth it I think. First, I got rid of the nastiest carpet in the world and second, there are beautiful hard wood steps beneath! This is my inspiration photo for what I will be doing with my newly uncovered stairs:

traditional staircase design by boston architect Siemasko + Verbridge

THE KITCHEN MAKEOVER: The first time I saw this kitchen, I thought to myself, "Now THIS is a kitchen I can cook in!". I was wrong. Once I started unpacking dishes, I realized I had no counter space and the cabinets were bass ackwards. The worst part was the ginormous island taking up most of the kitchen and slowing the flow of traffic in and out of the kitchen. Also, the cabinets weren't designed for someone who cooks. There's no space for me to store my dishes or my spices. In other words, we came to the realization we would have to replace the cabinets. Oh, and I hated the huge 60" wide fridge. It was obnoxious!!! So here we go...

Our new island cabinets are here and I'm waiting on J to install them. He's been rewiring the outlets and moving the plumbing around. Meanwhile, I've been working on the sink. Let's just say I drove two hours one way to pick up a sink yesterday and got it home, pulled it out of the box and J found a huge chip in the porcelain. I'm heartbroken. I have a 4 hour trip ahead of me to return it and I might go with something different now. I'm stressed to the max because out granite needs to be measured and I'm on a timeline with that. The kids and I have been looking everywhere and they are bored out of their minds comparing sinks and faucets! That still won't stop H from modeling everything I take a picture of as you can see in these out takes: