Stairs

Like all projects, our timeline has become "flexible." Our original six week goal has now been given an extra four week grace period. There are multiple factors in this decision:

1. When they ripped up the floor, it was discovered that the front door was rotting at the base and needed to be replaced. But finding the right guy for the job who doesn't want to charge an arm and a leg has been a little difficult.

2. We had leftover wood from our install downstairs and decided (after comparing costs) to install it upstairs instead of returning it (with a restocking fee).

3. Our tile for the shower still hasn't come in. The tile store blamed "the holidays," but the only holiday has been Easter! We're not sure about that one...

4. We decided to get the granite in the kitchen before painting the cabinets just in case we need to adjust the paint color selection. White cabinets. White granite. You see how this could go wrong.

I promise--the color is dead-on in person.

5. Installing the floor upstairs means we really need to refinish our own stairs instead of using the flooring company. We will no longer meet their minimum cost requirements if we don't have them refinish the floor upstairs, and we're not particularly interested in finding another contractor to fit in the mix. After testing six different stains and techniques I've finally found the right combo. But the SANDING!!

I managed to get out of the house sans kids today so I went to Home Depot and got the plywood for the upper cabinets I'm building in the bar area. I also picked up some electrical supplies to add an outlet under the counter. Dave looked at me the other day and said, "How are we going to plug in the wine cooler?" Well, good question! Guess we need to add an outlet! I got the wrong gauge wire... TIP: kitchens all use 20 amp circuits, which use 12 gauge wire--not 14 gauge. So, I'll do that tomorrow! I've got to get the bar area prepped so that it's read for the granite install on Monday!!! Not gonna lie--super excited about granite.

working my way up...

With the minor pause in my outlet install, which I will confess, took approximately five calls to my father, I decided I should tackle the nastiness of sanding the stairs instead. I'm going to hurt tomorrow. A belt sander, orbital sander, and mouse sander all to do the job. I was sooooo close to getting it done. But it just didn't happen before I had to get home to relieve the sitter.  And the poor contractor was trying to work around me while he dragged old flooring past me down the stairs.

Don't do this without a mask like I did. My sinuses are definitely irritated. I DID wear safety glasses though...just couldn't find the mask when I started.

This part RIGHT HERE will be white.

I'm hoping the rest will only take another hour or two and I can start working on the banister. I'm going to try a deglosser first and see if that gets me anywhere because this polycoat stuff is the biggest hurdle. I've decided to save myself some time and paint the landing for the balusters
(the part the balusters go into) white like the trim. We're planning to upgrade the balusters in the future and I feel like the white landing will just look better anyway. 

Sweat equity. 

Remember I'm still not done sanding the cabinet doors either. Ugh.