[ home ] :: friday fun!

At 6:00 this morning, I woke up to some odd scratching noise. I had never heard anything like it before that early in the morning, so I was a little freaked out. When I rolled over to nudge The Hubs so he could valiantly investigate the source...he was gone!

...he was sanding our stairs.

My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are coming to visit over the Thanksgiving holiday, and The Hubs is going bonkers about our random house projects that we never quite finished. Take, for example: our staircase.

Before: cheap carpet, laminate floor, dingy and splitting wood, and no light. There was also a header above the fourth or fifth step that was so low, The Hubs and I would hit our heads on it. It didn't bother him, but it did bother his dad and myself. The Hubs went out of town one week, and the second he left, his dad and I tore the whole thing apart and made it more forehead-friendly!

We never installed hardwood over the steps since we had not renovated our master bathroom (and still haven't!), so I ripped up the old, nasty carpet and stained the stairs a dark color (Kona by Rustoleum). When we moved in, the handrail was removed so we could get our furniture upstairs and it never made its way back onto the wall. Whoops! The Hubs painted it black this week and reinstalled it for me. I'm too clumsy to do it myself.

You can see where The Hubs has been sanding...

The Hubs hard at work - touch up painting!

Here is a sneak peek at what the steps will look like when they are done - aren't they gorgeous?! The Hubs fit the nosepiece on the top step last night and nailed it into place. We have "Lono" oak that we bought from Lumber Liquidators and love it. It was a steal for under $2.50 per square foot (I want to say it was $2.29/sqft) and we installed it ourselves. If you're looking for new flooring, this stuff comes very highly recommended!

Even though I don't have much room for a grand foyer, I still dream big! Here is my inspiration:

Source

Source

I'll have to keep you guys updated on the changes that are going on here. We want to have our new hardwood steps and a new banister installed before a party we're co-hosting in mid-December. I have dreams of installing decorative molding and a pretty pendent light...we'll see if that happens or not. Hopefully I will have some gorgeous pictures to show of our stairs in a few weeks!

- Maggie White