Long Time Coming

Since we've lived in this house, the outdoor stairs have been the bane of my existence. I fear for my life every time I set foot on them. Okay... that's an exaggeration. But perhaps not totally out of the realm, considering the minor slip I had on our interior stairs... when I was 7 months pregnant... that resulted in a fractured elbow.

Anyway.

I'm a klutz, is what it is. And these stairs are not klutz friendly. Especially when the klutz is carrying a 30-pound squirming toddler up and down them.

See for yourselves:



They were built on a diagonal to compensate for... something. I don't know. Also, no balusters. The wood was splintering with age. And the concrete block of a bottom step was chipping away.



To give you some spacial perspective, the main entry is not at the front of the house. It's off to the side. The door at the front of the house is actually the entrance to the in-law apartment downstairs. This proves to be a bit confusing for first-time visitors and pizza delivery guys.


Dizzy yet?

So when we talked about re-doing the stairs, all those many years ago, we wanted to make them safer, nicer, and look more prominent.

To get the job done we called our boys from Choice Woodworking, who happen to include our brother-in-law Nick and good friend Paul, and who basically did our entire interior remodel (so far). Despite our obvious bias, these guys are skilled artists. And I want to marry them. Or have my sister marry one of them, either way.

Tony tore the stairs down the day before, and The Boys spent a couple days building the new stairs. Needless to say, I was giddy with excitement with the whole shebang. It only took a few days, but it was quite a journey.

Day 1: Demo and wood delivery


Des supervised the demo.


Which went fairly quick.

Then the supplies came... Another job for Supervisor Des. There was a big truck, a cool forklift, and huge planks of wood involved. He was all over this.


Look at the size of that truck.


If toddlers could say "OMG!"


Here he comes!


This'll do.


Get back to work!

Day 2: There was a jackhammer. And some framing. And some ass kicking.


New dad, Nick, hard at work.


Mhmm, mhmm. Lookin' good.


It came together fast!


Remnants of their art.

Day 3: Finished product


Ooooooh...


Aaaaah...


Eeeeee!!


Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So there's our new stairway!

I leave the front door open so I can stare at it all day. The first night I pulled a sleeping bag out there and slept on the deck. Not really. But I thought about it. Tony's really excited about putting a pumpkin out there. Which, obviously yeah. There will be pumpkins. It's just so cute that he said that.

A final side by side, before/after comparison:




Our new stairway survived its first hurricane unscathed. Obviously. I mean, looka that thing!

Stairway and Artwork

We've slowly been checking projects off of our list. Sometimes things get started, half-way done, and then left for a while. Life gets in the way.

A big one that we touched upon in a previous entry is the new stairway built by the boys of Choice Woodworking. Everything is brand new, from the treads to the risers to the railings, etc. Nick and Paul stained the treads and railings dark to match the wood floors upstairs. And everything else is a crisp white.

The boys finished their beautiful handy-work a while ago, but Tony still had to do some touch-ups on the white paint. So it only recently became officially completed. Here is the finished product:

So preeeeetty.

Although I can't seem to find a proper 'before' photo, here is the old stairway mid-demolition:

Dirty white paint and a blue carpet on the treads and risers. They had seen better days, obviously.

The crafstmanship is admired by all who see the new stairs... including by Nick and Paul themselves who are over all the time anyway. ;-)

A more minor project we've been gradually catching up with is hanging stuff up on the walls. We have so many random mis-matched frames and mirrors, it's hard to make sense of everything. So I tend to overthink where pictures should be hung, therefore leaving blank walls throughout the house. But here's one spot that's done:

Dining room. Photos of our trip out to the Southwest.

An obvious choice for the bathroom... photo to be hung on the wall. We purchased this at an auction, piece by the one and only Jenny.

We also put a mirror up in our entry way, which looks decent. So many more to go.

And here's some progress on the biggest project in our lives, Project Baby:

25 weeks

26 weeks

Getting there!

Slated for an updated...

Sarah promised pictures, so I am here to deliver.

As mentioned, the boys are hard at work on the slate tile. Here are some before and after (well, in progrss) shots

Kitchen:

Entry way

As you can see, Nick is on the ground doing the grunt work. Number one, he is shorter so he doesn't have to bend over as far. Number two, he is half Italian so working with stone and mortar is in his blood. Paul used his skills to make all of the cuts on the tile.

And now for a big surprise that Sarah doesn't even know about! (until she reads this). Work has begun on the steps! On my visit home for lunch today, I was surprised to hear a nail gun.

This is what they looked like when we left the house this morning.

When I delivered burritos for lunch, muco progresso had been made

You can see Paul taking pride in his work. He didn't even drink a beer for lunch because he wanted to stay sharp, or choice, as we call it. Many props to both of those guys.

I'm psyched to see what the place looks like when I get home...