Doug's Project 365

After a year at my new job, I’ve moved into an office with a window, instead of one with a great view of the server room.

The first flight of stairs is done, and that was the easy part.  The second flight of stairs (to the third floor) not only needs painting, they need repair.  I’ve been taking off some treads to peer inside, and have discovered several old items that have fallen inside.  Here we have a Christmas postcard from 1919, and a price card from Warren School Hairdressing — 50 cents for a facial massage!

Stair project is done! The bulk of the work today was in doing touch-up on 3 colors and painting the surrounding trim white to bring out the cream of the stairs themselves.  The kitties have been released from their prison, though I don’t think Winnie realizes it yet.

Stair project, almost done. Here we have the final coat of all the colors.  What remains is some finishing touches.

Stair project, day 4: all the missing cove moulding has been replaced, all the blue border has been painted, and we’ve put down an example of the final tan color for the center of the faux runner.  All in all a pretty tiring evening.

And yes, that’s a footprint on the bottom tread — the paint was dry to the touch but still tacky enough in all this humidity to grab onto dirt on both Lis’s and my feet.  It needs a second coat anyway.

Stair theme, day 3: most progress tonight was not visible (finalizing the design; picking up & priming cove moulding for replacing missing pieces) but here you can see the beginning of the blue border for the runner.

Part 2 of the stair project mini-theme:

We are back from vacation.  The new oak floor looks marvelous.  The stairs.. not so much.  It turns out their materials and condition are not conducive to staining and clear-finish.  After brainstorming with Jen, our interior-designer friend, we have decided to do a faux runner on the main stairs.  The next few days of posts will feature a mini-theme following its progress. 

Here we’ve patched & sanded the worst of the defects, and primed one side (leaving the other side clear for walking until it dries).

We played frisbee golf earlier in the week (twice!), and mini golf today.

Ahh, Saturday on the Vineyard… the day of our traditional eat-at-home lobster dinner.  We do this on Saturday to avoid the restaurant crowds.

This year’s feast was especially yummy because of farmer’s market goodies picked out by Lis and Rachel.