Stairwell Before and After

Once upon a time our stairwell was narrow, dark and fully walled off from the rest of the house.

When we gutted the upstairs last summer we ripped out the walls surrounding the stairs and built a new, wider set of stairs. The temporary stair rail has served its purpose since August, but with the rest of the first floor finished it was time for something a little more elaborate.

We don't like the more ornate turned balusters and newel posts that are readily available from the big box stores. And the maple ones I could custom order were over our budget. So Luke and I figured out what materials we would need and I picked up a couple 12' 6/4 boards to work with.

I usually assist Luke with this kind of project. He has much more experience and I'm happy to just be his helper, but that weekend he was busy designing our sprinkler system (and watching march madness) so I ended up trying most of this on my own. I was able to lam the boards together without too much trouble but using the router table to create the flutes and rounded edges was stressful. I haven't done a lot of router work and one mistake could mean having to start over.

The new railing is both sturdier and looks nicer than the 2x4's. The balusters are powder coated aluminum intended for outdoor use, but we like the clean look they give the interior of the house.

As a finishing touch I finally installed the tread lights that were roughed in last summer.

Obviously they won't be completely finished until we carpet the basement but they're good enough for now.

Comments

Our New House - It Might Just Be Home

I recently announced that we had sold our home in Helena and will be moving to my hometown in July. We did some house-hunting over Easter weekend and I'm please to report success. We are in the process of buying our latest home: I know you can't see it well behind the trees. I'm so excited to have actual trees on the property. The house itself is nestled against the base of a hill which will block our views of the sunset but the east-facing front porch should offer some wonderful sunrises. And here's a sneak peek of our view. I won't be posting any more photos until we've actually closed on the house. Closing is still two months away and a lot could change before then. Still, I look forward to sharing our latest project.

Sold

We sold our house last week. This may come as a surprise since the house wasn't even for sale. We weren't planning to move. Everything in the house was designed with the idea that we would be living here for years. But sometimes God makes it abundantly clear that He has other plans. In the course of just a few days Luke was offered a chance to move to his company branch in my hometown and we met a family looking for a house in our neighborhood. And now our house is under contract. Closing is scheduled for mid-July so I will have a little time to recover from having the baby, but until she arrives I've been packing up all our non-essentials. We have already started looking for our next home; maybe it will be a home we get to enjoy for decades. We'll just have to wait and see.

_________ & After Pictures

I might be homeless, but that doesn't stop me from remodeling. This week I am giving my parents a reprieve from the mess of remodeling and am working for my grandparents in Missoula. They have spoiled me rotten just because I'm the only granddaughter, so it has been really gratifying to be able to do something for them. My grandparents were having a problem with water from the sink and grease from the oven getting on the walls. Tile solved those problems while dressing up the walls. We found some we liked at Lowe's yesterday and by this afternoon it was installed and grouted. I am kicking myself for not taking any before pictures of what I have been doing the past two days. Here is a picture of the kitchen taken about a year ago. Notice the wall behind my cousin. I really like how this turned out. I might just have to use tile like this in my next house.

From Hovel to Home

Search This Blog