Attic Door Inspiration

What to do with the attic door in the upstairs hallway.  Just a regular sized door with the attic ladder attached stuck in the ceiling.....

Major inspiration required me to decide the stairwell, landing, upstairs hallway and back stairs will be my Americana area.... thus, I began the Americana theme with my attic door.

Turned out fairly artsy... if I do say so myself..

A Promise to be a Better Blogger

Soooo... OK, I have not been true to the blog... I admit I slowed down but, perhaps things are actually getting done and perhaps I DO have things to report for the Beast.

Recently I discovered that the closet at the head of the stairs was not an original part of the house...wasn't supposed to be there.... and I discovered this fact when I attempted to pull off that lasssssst piece of ugly paneling that was on the side wall of the closet. Pulling it off uncovered new studs.... and drywall on the inside of the closet instead of plaster. Upon further inspection I realized that the dreaded past home owners had stolen the landing area with an ugly closet.

Of course.... I ripped that sucker out... and without the help of my sister, El Destructo, because it was cold... and wintery ... and she had some gall bladder surgery and wasn't in shape to tear up my house.

Anyway.... here's a before picture.... kinda before.... during destruction...

After destroying the closet I set about attempting to find a handrail that would match the old rail.... and find balusters to match the three that were intact. I found 4 old ones down in the creepy basement.... and no luck matching them up... guess they are too old of a pattern. By the way, it costs a fortune to have someone mill your existing balusters... and since I am fairly cheap.... an expensive fix was out of the question.

I did find plain balusters and a handrail that matched fairly well from Home Depot's vendors.

Then, as usual, I found Rick the master carpenter and had him restore my landing with my new parts....

Rick is so very skillful.....



and......



wait for it......



here it comes.....



are you ready.....




Ta Da.....

Love it... love it...

Looking forward to scraping paint off the rest of the stairway... and maybe getting it stained and varnished this summer...

let's all keep our fingers crossed.

Scraping Paint and Sanding

I've been scraping a lot of paint lately. The window woodwork, doors, and baseboards are getting scraped and sanded.There is only ..... Mmmmmm ... about 4 layers of old paint and varnish on all the wood but progress is coming along.







Here is a picture of the small window on the first floor landing by the front door. It was my first effort and it came out nicely. I was pleased.

Return to the Blog

OK... I haven't been blogging much. I got distracted. (Yeah, yeah... distracted for half a year or so. I'll do better).

At 'the Beast' since Saturday and currently working upstairs on the second floor. I removed the doorway in the hall which is the last remnant of there being an apartment on the 2nd floor. Hoping the removal of the doorway will make it look more like the single family dwelling it was meant to be... and open up the hallway... making it roomier and let in more light.

That door still visible in the picture is a stupid closet that the previous owners had built at the top of the stairs... on the landing. The closet is the next demolition project.

I am going to restore the stair railing and it will be part of the landing again. Nice place for a bookshelf, a chair and lamp....

Under 20 Bucks

It's always a successful thrift store day when you can find a chair for 19 bucks. Found this heavy (believe me, it's heavy) pink chair at the Salvation Army store... down the street from 'the Beast.'

It may be a downstairs chair because I am not sure if I can get it up the stairs to a bedroom. We barely got it into the house from the truck. I am sure neighbors were laughing at our efforts.

The Groundhog's Spring

OK.... the groundhog was obviously correct. He predicted an early spring....and the weekend brought temperatures in the upper 50's. This gave my sister and I an opportunity to head to 'the Beast'... to spend the night and get a few things accomplished.
The goal was to yank the mauve toilet and facebowl out of the upstairs bathroom. Mission accomplished.
While working in the bathroom I discovered 100 year old wallpaper on the ceiling. The kind of wallpaper that had the fabric backing.... and luckily it pulled right off in strips.... tore off straight and clean like tearing muslin.
The bathroom is awaiting beautification.
I am going back on Weds. and Thurs. of this week because temperatures in the 60's are promised.
Happily winter is over in my world and I can get back to business.

Moving Right Along

Moving right along with the September chimney project.

I found some thinner than regular brick pavers.... only one and a half inch thick.... to rebrick the chimney area in the kitchen. I flipped them so that the 4 inch side is visible and am stuffing cement mix behind them to adhere them to the chimney and plaster in order to keep the weight of all the bricks off the floor.

The cement mix behind the bricks also helps even up the whole surface behind the bricks... since some of the plaster came off the original chimney easily... and some... did not want to come off at all.

All in all it's working out well and will look rather cool when I am finished. Heading to The Beast tomorrow to work on some more rows. I am on row 18 and need to complete 30 to get to the ceiling.