Stair rail to heaven!

 

 

Another project complete! About a year and a half ago, Stewart and Quinn moved the stairs into a L-shape so that you had more clearance for your head when you head down the stairs. While that has been great for our noggins, I have hated the current state of the stairs afterwards. This rickety gate has been a barrier for Calvin and it looks awful. I always felt bad for people who wanted to go downstairs because they had to climb over the dumb thing and try not to fall to their death. So after talking with my dad and asking for his help, we started the process of replacing the old half wall/stair rail and the gate. Thanks to his help, we were able to buy and build the new stair rail for so much cheaper than we thought was possible. We bought all the newel posts and hand rail from Hewitt Mill on a clearance/discount. My dad just kept talking them down. It was great. Then my dad built the baby gate, all the balusters, and the shoe plate (I am an expert on stair rail lingo now).We would not have been able to do this without him. We ended up using his paint sprayer downstairs and sprayed everything before we installed it. After watching Stew and Quinn move the stairs and after watching Stew and Harry build the stair rail, I have decided stairs are not for the weak of heart.

 

Here is a before pictures once more for good measure:

 

 After:

 

Dining room table - Finished

We finished our dining room table! Yay!

Here is a before:

 

After:

 

Here is the breakdown:

• Table and six chairs purchased from my brother. They were in his house when he moved in: $40.00
• New cushions: $35.00
• Laminated cotton: $75.00

Grand total: $150.00

 

Not bad considering that our other dining room table that we bought when we were first married cost us $250.00. Plus, I like this one a whole lot more. It's a little less country feeling to me. Also, we sold our old table for $75.00, so that helped with the cost of our new table. It was crazy. We posted it on KSL and within two days, I had 14 inquiries for the table. The lucky person who bought it was number 2 in line.

 

Previous dining room table:

 

 

 

Some tips and suggestions from this project:

• Buy good paint and make sure you have some left over. That was the problem with our last table. We ran out of the black paint and let me tell you, black paint is not all the same. Every black we tried was almost gray against the table. It was a pain because we couldn't touch up any dings on the table.
• Use polyurethane to help minimize dings. It also gives the table a great shine and doesn't look so painted. It looks like it was supposed to come that way.
• Laminated cotton is the best. I spent hours and hours looking for a good solution to cover our chairs. I didn't want just plain fabric because of how dirty it would get. I didn't want to cover it in a clear vinyl because it makes them a little more bulky. I thought about using a vinyl table cloth, but I just was afraid it wouldn't hold up well. Then I stumbled upon the world of laminate cotton. It is waterproof and is flexible just like normal fabric. Sold! Now it is more expensive (like $25.00 a yard) but I think it was worth it. There is a lot of fun designs for laminate cotton, but I wanted something that was neutral in case my style changes in a couple of years.
• For those of you who may cross this road someday, yes you can iron laminate cotton. Just lay it face down with a dish cloth in between to protect it. My iron was set to medium high heat and it worked good. Not great, but enough to get out some of the wrinkles.



• If you can, buy your foam for your chairs from a re-upholstery company. Not only was it cheaper than buying it from some place like JoAnn's, but they cut it for free for me and it was nice high quality and density foam. Win! We bought ours from sofabiz. They were super nice and had it been up to me, I would have cut the foam exactly the same size as the bottom wood part. But being the experts that they are, they left a little extra that kind of wraps around the wood so your edge isn't sharp.

 

Conclusion: We love it! Although, it is a dust magnet...

The Front room/Dining room

What we have done already:

• Moved a chandelier that was in the front living room to the dining room
• Painted the chandeliers silver instead of gold
• Exposed an old window by removing the sheet rock

 

What we love:

• The arch
• The crown molding
• Tall ceilings (we love this in every room)
• The chandeliers
• The windows
• The china cabinet     

What we plan on fixing/changing:

• Frame the newly exposed window.
• Replace the two windows on the east wall.
• The floors. We are going to do a dark hardwood or laminate floor. We are still on the fence about what to get. We love hardwood floors, but laminate floors seem to be a bit more kid friendly.
• Paint the walls
• Paint the ceiling
• Paint all the trim
• Install central air and remove the swamp cooler vent
• Shift the stairs into the dining room so that you do not bump your head on the way downstairs.
• Replace the sconce lighting by the china cabinet.
• Paint the china cabinet
• Replace the two broken/missing glass panes on the china cabinet
• Paint the front door