I know I know. To most people a stairway is not a big deal. But in our little cottage, it is in the center of the house. It divides the living room from the kitchen. It is a centerpiece of sorts. As I look around at the beautiful pine wood that Rich has added to the walls, I realized that the ugly old carpeting and dark wood rough cut posts needed to go. In fact I rarely took any photos directed towards the stairs in our house because. Well. They were just downright ugly. [See Morris photo in previous post.] Here is a shot of the stairway before we added the pine wood in the eating area.
First I painted the stairs white and the brown sides of the stairs white.
It took only a couple of coats and came out pretty nice looking. However as tempting it is to have white stairs, I decided to add color to the 'risers'. We debated long and hard on the color. Rich wanted tan. I said absolutely NO tan! No brown! We also debated the stair railing. We could take it down and replace it, or I could strip it and clear coat it. One way or another, it will have to be refurbished. Too many years of hands up and down it have caused it to be gunky looking. Yes 'Gunky' is my technical word for icky. Funny how you pretty one thing up and it leads to another item that needs fixing. So I put plastic up over the pine and taped the edges of the stairs. I was going to work on painting the ceiling and when my arms tired of that, I was going to start a bit on the stairs. So I tuned in Pandora to my oldies station and began to paint.
Here is a little preview of the color we are using on the stairs. Since it is just a quick coat, please don't judge it until you see the final shots!
We will be adding carpet treads at a later date. I have them picked out already. Today's job is to try and finish off the ceiling. I think I will need to run to town and get more paint. The ceiling was in need of repair and now it needs to be brightened up to match the new section of the house. See? One thing after another!
Well things are still moving along. The clear coating of the wood has been finished. We did two coats and are ready now for Kurt to come back and get the window framing done in the living room and kitchen areas. With that done, we can have the bank come back out and do the inspection. Our new direct vent heater was delivered last week and Rich is working on getting that installed. Just in time too. I think we normally have the first frost around the first week of October. I've finally gotten the carpeting all pulled on the stairs and that is ready to paint.
[View from the top] Morris was rather put out by having his 'perch' changed.
He refused to come down the stairs until I had all of the little pieces of wood removed. I don't blame him. That night after he came down the stairs he refused to come up and go to bed in his normal spot. He curled up on the couch and didn't move until I came down the next morning. Here is a shot of him when he was quite young. Laying on his 'perch' on the stairs.
What a change it is! I am going to paint the stairs with a primer and then a greenish very light color for a finish. The stairs have always been a huge issue for me to keep clean and tidy. The dog hair was always embedded into the stairs and now I'll be able to wipe the stairs clean. We will be adding stair treads for extra cushion and for safety. I'm thinking something along these lines:
The big project will be pulling the carpet on the living room floor. I need to do some research on using textured paint. I plan on a 'do it yourself' job for our ceiling. Then I have some repaint and touch up work to do in the bathroom and kitchen. Slowly but surely we are getting there. I'll have photos of the new heater once it is installed. One day at a time! It is really looking quite nice.
The windows are in and the insulation is on! Someone turned my house pink! Yesterday was spent re-organizing the house and packing up what was under the kitchen sink [nasty place!], the bathroom, and ALL both kitchen cabinets near the sink in prep for the plumbers arrival on Monday. Walls will come down, and the wash machine, dryer, old water heater, old tub, old toilet will go out. Yes. No shower, toilet, or wash machine for a while. Thank goodness for the outhouse right? I have the creek to wash in right? Hah. We will have water. I am taking some inside shots so that I can compare before, during and after the construction. This is getting interesting! Somehow I am still managing to keep the place somewhat organized. Incredible right? Oh and the concrete guys should be here to prep and perhaps pour the porch today.
There are some things to keep in mind during a remodel. Kurt told me that we would experience some 'inconvenience', he told us this when bidding the house project. So there will be no surprise as far as that is concerned. I've had a year to think about how to make things move along more smoothly. I've also found out that 90% of what I have packed away last winter has not been needed around the house. Hmmmm. Time to clear out some of that? I made good use of the dumpster this past two weeks. Out went 'stuff' that I hadn't used or looked at in a long time. I think remodeling is a good time to review the 'crap' that has been collected for 20 years and clean house of clutter. Even after the clutter is cleaned up, there is more clutter. It seems to have a life of its own. I think it self generates. Is there self pollinating clutter? Do they have baby clutters? Or does clutter just sprout? I don't know. Maybe they make a spray to kill the clutter seeds. If not, I should invent it. After the remodel though, I'll have more space to clutter and more areas to put stuff. I wonder how long it will take for us to clutter it up? I would like to leave the kitchen counter sleek and nearly empty. I would like to have things stored in an orderly fashion. Next thought. The kitchen project. Oh. All the stuff will have to be removed from the kitchen. I think I am prepared to toss my canned goods, and boxed goods into a bin and move it to the tiny living room. However the huge table and the other stuff that is in the small kitchen/dining area will have to be moved too. So, I've been keeping the groceries at a minimum so that has meant more trips to town. Meals are now getting planned on the spur of the moment. I wonder if I should just put all of our stuff on the porch once the concrete is put in. Yikes. I am so glad that the construction crew is so helpful. They are able to work around the tight spaces and accommodate us. Kudos to them.
This is not the excavator. It will come tomorrow sometime.
But I started things with my own little shovel by removing the blocks we've used for so many years as our stepping stones into the cottage. The yard looks very strange without them. But this is where the digging will take place. In fact while doing chores yesterday I turned around while feeding Lil' Richard and thought that the house looked so terribly forlorn and barren.
All the plants and perennials have been moved over the past year from around the house. Two of our beautiful pine trees are now gone. Of course here is a view from 2010 when we had 3 more pines and from a different viewpoint.
I can't wait to see the 'new' cottage. It sure does need an update inside and out. Yesterday we spent time moving things around so when the heavy machinery is delivered they will be able to turn around safely and easily. The horse trailer/mule trailer had to be moved, as well as the skid steer's implements.
Things have finally dried out enough around here so that we are not in 'mudville' any longer. Let the Excavation Begin!
I didn't want to loose another pine tree, but I could see the sense in it. So in the afternoon we proceeded with it. I took video.
He lays it down exactly where he intends on putting it. Between two other pines.
And now we had a big mess. Branches all over the place. We started to clean it up. We tossed the pieces we cut up to fit the bucket on the skid steer and Rich hauled it away to a brush pile out back. The tree was truly too close to the house and if we'd had a bad windstorm he was afraid it would to damage to the roof as it was heavy with branches over the top of the house. However I did enjoy having coffee in the morning and watching the silly squirrels and birds scamper up and down this tree for the past 20 years.
It looks rather bare right now but I imagine with a new porch near where hubby is standing will fill in some space. We briefly talked about some shrubs or low lying plants to plant near the house. His mind wasn't on it. He was exhausted after that and went to lay down for a bit. My neighbor came down because he'd heard the chain saw going. Within minutes he pitched in and helped me stack up the rest of the branches so they could easily be hauled away. New neighbor! Talk about being blessed and lucky.
It only took us an hour this morning to clean this up. The tree trunk is still there. We will drag it away and hopefully sell it as a nice pine log.
And then Morris and I worked today on cleaning up the small stuff and replanting the hostas that had been at the base of the pine. They would need a new home and I had just the place for them. My helper.
This afternoon a couple of trucks pulled into the driveway. It was our Contractor Kurt and his concrete/digging guys. They came to look at where they were going to put the basement.
Kurt said he was looking at sometime next week to start digging. We had a conversation about not having water as they will have to cut the lines and re-attach them. We also had a conversation about not having electricity. Hmmm. Where they have to dig, the electric and water must be cut off for obvious reasons. I'm guessing we'll have an interesting time. Hopefully we won't be without for more than 24 hrs as I will need to find places for my freezer and refrigerated food. Also we will need to fill stock tanks and add more water to some of our old stock tanks. It will be an exercise won't it? So the tree went, the contractors are itching to start and things are looking good in the long range forecast. Sounds like I best get busy and pack up the rest of the 'stuff' that will need to be moved inside the house. Yikes, it is almost here!
