A long climb

After knocking out a bunch of smaller tasks, we turned back to one of the last major projects in the house - the stairwell.  The stairs seemed like a good idea at the time we were building them - a version of a U shaped staircase with two landings per level (not one, as is more common).  And the framing itself went moderately well, although a few measurement tweaks had to be made on the fly.  But then it came time to start the finish work - adding the stair treads, the stair backings, the trim pieces, the posts, the rails...and the enormity of the task became clear.  This was no weekend project.

After much contemplation and more than a couple of false starts, we've not only made a lot of progress but the stairs are nearly done.  And, most excitingly, we had our final inspection on the house a few weeks ago and passed!  Everything, including the stairs, checked out to code and now our permits are officially closed out.  There's still some trim and a fair amount of painting to be done but the summer is looking like it may be a little more relaxed (at last).  But first, an extremely long post to document this project.  We're still not quite finished yet - there will be more trim and then paint on everything, but this should get us caught up for now.  And at the end - more puppy pictures!

Stair treads in place, makeshift 2x4 rails that have been in place for...let's just say a fair amount amount of time (it's been a very long time).  Plus a very important and stylish cardboard puppy guard to keep little ones from running off the edge of the floor and plunging to the basement below

Starting to trim out the side wall with wainscoting for an accent

Dryfitting the posts and getting set up for the rails.  We used a piece of yuca board to help figure out the height and slope of the rails so we could determine the correct height of the posts.  The board was a great trick and made it easier but...this was not easy even with the board.  A serious downside of this stair design is that there are many individual stair runs, each of which had to be measured for each post.  Not for the faint, or impatient, of heart

Getting ready to cut the posts.  We had planned to custom build the posts but found these available at a relatively nearby woodshop.  Buying them was a great decision as it saved some time on an already incredibly time consuming project

Getting the post into place after cutting the bottom to fit and checking that the rail will hit in the right spot

Moving to the second floor (and looking down), we needed to get the floor trim pieces into place on the edge of the floor before putting the posts and rails in.  A lot of blue tape died for this cause.

And now getting the anchors for the posts into place

An army of posts in place

Starting to custom stain the now cut oak handrails.  We used the same stain we've used elsewhere in the house, a mix of Kona and Walnut

Installing the handrails

More handrails

Yep, more handrails

Setting up a jig to cut the balusters

Working on install

Getting everything set on, yes, another run (so many runs)

And now moving to the rest of the trim work - setting up custom ripped pieces to box out the columns

Working on trimming out the ceiling - getting lots of use out of the Starrett angle finder on this project

And back to the columns - this does not look finished yet

Getting the trim into place

Now that looks good!

But still not done yet - time to get back to trimming out the walls

More detail

And yet more detail - on both the underside of the stairs and the stair walls behind it

As Brian has been hard at work, I've been hard at play with these foster puppies!

This is Sadie, a rottie mix, who was so cuddly that she may have convinced us to let her sleep on the bed.  I'm a softie.

Puppy playtime

And then we had this pair of siblings - Marley (on the left) and Charlie (on the right).  These were our youngest puppies yet at seven weeks and they were sweethearts, even if rather babyish.   

Look at these adorable faces!  Makes getting up several times a night a lot easier when it's to care for this level of cuteness.  Although I was still delighted to sleep through the night once they were adopted

Inching towards the finish line

We're at that point where most projects are really a series of small but seemingly never-ending tasks.  Floor trim, crown moulding, so much paint...it's all decorative touches but it all needs to be done.  Now that the basement is finished, we moved back to the first floor and one of the larger projects left was to finish the fireplace.  It's essentially the same design as the basement fireplace, complete with another reclaimed wood beam for the mantel.

Getting started with boxing out the trim

And now adding all the 1 x 4 trim pieces

Have to finish the beam before it can go up

And here it is, all assembled!

And a picture from the side

Moving forward on another project, we went back to the mudroom and added crown to complete the built-in look.  Just need some paint in here and this room will be done.

Built-ins complete!

And now for the best part - we were slightly (or completely) distracted for a couple of weeks while we fostered a puppy for our local animal rescue group (Homeward Trails).  She's now happily in her forever home but it was impossible to get much work done with the cutest puppy in the world around (and we didn't try very hard either).

Look at this face!  Cutest. Puppy. Ever. 

Master bedroom finishes

This is a seriously overdue post - I thought that I had put this post up months ago until I went looking for a paint color, couldn't find it, and got irritated at my own blog neglect.  So here it is now, after much searching (and frustration) to find said paint color.  New Year's resolution - document paint colors in a timely fashion before I forget them!

But, before we painted, we decided to trim out one of the walls before we finished it to provide an accent.  We went back to an old trick and ripped floor trim to create the wainscoting on the wall before painting everything.  It turned out really well and, since this post is nearly a year late, I can report that we're still very happy with the detail and the color.

Getting the wainscoting in place, with all the furniture piled in the middle of the room

And setting up to paint

Painting in progress!

First coat on!  The color is Sherwin-Williams Knitting Needles.  KNITTING NEEDLES.  May I never forget.  

And done!  Time to move everything back.  If we remember, we'll update with a current "after" photo at some point!

Fireplace finishes

One of our favorite things about this house is that it has two wood-burning fireplaces.  One of our least favorite things, though, is that both fireplaces have (or had) basic red brick surrounds.  So we decided to upgrade them by building and tiling custom surrounds for each (and saved ourselves some design headaches by using the same materials and design for both too).  We went with a matte black hexagon tiles for the hearth, along with a marble edge, and a white marble arabesque tile for the side surround.  As with our last house, we bought reclaimed beams to use for mantels and we're really happy with how it's all turning out!

Floor first - laying the hearth

So pretty!

Now with cement board and ready to start tiling the sides

Laser level is a must with this arabesque tile

All in!  Just awaiting grout (snow white, if you're wondering what color grout)

Moving onto the basement fireplace - the new drywall was already in so we wound up making this a little bigger and wider than we probably would have otherwise

We didn't take many (or any) in progress pictures but it looked like the one above - cement board behind, now tile in front

Continuing to build out the trim

And dry-fitting the mantel

Just about done!

Mantel installed and trim paint completed  

Now we just need to pop in a fireplace insert and this one will be done!  The first floor fireplace still needs the trim to be installed and painted, along with the mantel added, so those pictures will have to wait until later.  And here in the basement, you can see some other progress - we've built it out to have a main room (in the picture), bedroom, full bath, and a theatre room.  We installed some of the same wood flooring in front of the bar nook but the rest of the floor (other than the bathroom, of course) will be carpet so installation will be quick.  While I'm here, I might as well include a picture of the basement bath - since the ceiling height is a little low, at least relative to the other two floors, we went with a beveled 4x10 white subway tile on the walls and a greige hex on the floor.  It's a simple but hopefully inviting look!   

Basement bathroom almost done too!