Done

or…almost.  Actually, almost, almost done.  We have to prime paint trim and finish the stairs.

I’m just back from the airport and exhausted but wanted to send pictures real quick.  We couldn’t be happier of how things turned out so far.  I even got a few hours of cleaning the garage done today (we need room for all our new tools!!)

 

Here were today’s projects,

Would you ever have guessed stairs were the most complicated part of this project?  the most material/trips to Lowes/special orders from milling companies, the most contemplation and discussion on what to do.  I think they look beautiful and Kraig did a great job on them.

You’ll notice, we don’t even have all the stairs done.  The stairs up, in addition to being painted, need to have the carpet trimmed and tucked. 

The stairs down aren’t even done yet.  We aren’t really happy with the materials we were sold for the stairs that are wood (the going down portion) so we have to go tomorrow to find another solution.  Among other things, the stair noses are laminate and don’t match, and they mechanism to attach doesn’t even work correctly so we’d have to nail them down.  And on the transition pieces, vacuum meets laminate is never a good situation so we’d rather do it right the first time than have to redo that portion later.  More to come on that.  But the banister and the risers and the treads all look great.  I can’t wait to get the last coat of primer on and then paint.  Honestly, I think I would have been a little happier with a stained banister and floor boards, but we had a hard time matching the stain, and this way seems better to begin with….I hope I don’t regret it later. 

We have a lot of work ahead of us.  The basement still isn’t usable.  We need to pick out pain and solve the stair problem and buy some furniture tomorrow and then we’ll start painting Monday.  The drywall would probably be ready to paint tomorrow, maybe we’ll prime the new walls, but likely we’ll crash early and get a fresh start on Monday.  More as it’s comes together.