ListWise

Monday, September 06, 2010

1000th Post

According to Blogger, on September 2nd I made my 1,000th post to the blog! That is a milestone, of sorts...I guess. Really, it is kind of meaningless. Other than the fact that 1000 is a nice round number and it could be considered large by some measurements, it came and went without me noticing it, so never mind.

As for the foyer, it feels like I've made a thousand posts just on this project. I'm at the "it is a never ending project" phase of the project. According to the blog I started this project back on May 13th, so that means next week it will be 4 months. I guess that's not too bad. Of course, I'm not finished, but these 3 day weekends are great. I wish every week had a 3 day weekend. Or better yet, what if I only worked 3 days a week. I did that for years. I was so productive on this house back then - sigh!

1) Finish stripping the shellac off the stairs.
2) Strip the shellac off the baseboards in the stairwell and foyer.
3) Strip the shellac off 3 doors and the casing around 4 doorways
4) Paint the walls in the foyer
5) Hang picture rail in the foyer
6) Trim out the pocket doors
7) Install the mill work I had made for the missing stair parts
8) Oil and shellac all of the woodwork – stairs, doors, baseboards, picture rail
9) Sand, oil, and shellac the stair treads and foyer floor
10) Install a carpet runner on the stairs and buy rugs for the foyer
11) Hang the light fixture in the foyer
12) Install the antique, cast bronze mail slot in the front door
13) Paint the outside of the front door
14) Buy and install a new old lockset for the front door.
15) Clean, clean, clean, clean, clean
16) I would also want to re-upohlster the chair seat of the desk chair in the kitchen

Above is the list I made a few weeks back when I was considering being on this years Home Tour sponsored by The Eureka Heritage Society. I've made a pretty good dent in the list. Honestly, except for the front doors and the chair in the kitchen, everything on this list will be finished by October 3rd, which is when the home tour will be.

Really, the two big jobs left are the floor, including stair treads, and shellacking all of the woodwork. I'm having a little trouble deciding which to do first. Good arguments can be made for doing either of them first. Aside from those two items, there are still many little things that can easily eat up a weekend. Still, I think I could have made the home tour. Unfortunately, they needed an answer by last weekend and at that time I did not feel comfortable committing myself to a deadline. Oh well, there is always next year.

Here is where it stands now. We'll start with the obligatory before shorts.













As it stands















13 comments:

Sean said...

Wow - looks terrific - It must be a real joy to come home and be greeted by all that gorgeous redwood after spending so long with what it looked like before!

Greg said...

Yes, it is a joy. I wish the medallion photo have come out better. It was originally painted gold and I wasn't planning on doing anything with it, but splattered paint and Weld Crete on it.

I washed on a metallic copper paint on the outside and the leaves are 2 colors of green to give them depth. It looks much better in real life.

Jesse said...

I have been following your blog for a long time but have never posted a comment. I just wanted to tell you congratulations on both your 1000th post and the beautiful job you have done on the house. I love the colors you have chosen for the hall and I cant wait to see the finished product.

Greg said...

Thanks Jesse - I call it "The Pie Hall" now because the colors are Banana Cream (bottom) and Lemon Meringue (Top).

Karen Anne said...

Looks so great. When there's furniture in there, unbelievable.

LeighC said...

You have done a super job! It looks awesome :)

Anonymous said...

i don't know what thrills me so about this stuff -- it's like a resurrection or something. all the good intentions that went in to making it a beautiful house in the first place, recovered, god bless and i look fwd to the next 1000.

Greg said...

Thanks! It has been quite the transformation.

Debra said...

Looks great!! Those stairs must have taken a LONG LONG time to strip!
I am in the process of stripping paint off of all the wood trim and beams in my dining room. It's almost the exact same colors as one of this photos in this post... yellow with maroon trim! It's hard work, but will look so much better after I'm done!

Greg said...

Thanks Debbie. It was worth the effort, but I am glad I am finished with it. I estimate I put more than 120 hours of work in to the stairs.

Debra said...

This is my 1st time using paint stripper and I think I started way too large... I have 24 hours to strip 1/2 of my dining room now that I have the stripper already on the paint. The fumes alone have me taking way more breaks then I planned on!
120 hours?! That's what you call a labor of love. Your house is absolutely beautiful!

Greg said...

I learned this same lesson you are learning now, the first time I used paint stripper. It was my upstairs bathroom I tried to do one whole wall at once. It was not pretty, I now apply to no more than a square yard at a time, or less.

slateberry said...

I have some upholstery materials left over from my wicker front porch furniture restoration. Even that old cotton batting that is harder to find than the polyester. Drop me a line if you need anything for your kitchen chair project.