Seriously, Plan F on the Stairs!

For a space that doesn't have any furniture or someplace we hang out, this stairway is sure getting lots of attention.

Here is where we left off:

And our latest idea was to not scrape and sand the steps and just cover them with plywood like we did the kitchen floor and then paint them and they would be terrific.

And so we got started on plan 6. Or F.

And then we discovered a little tiny super annoying problem:

We could not use just straight cut wood for the steps. There is a little notch on the front side edges on both sides of each one. 

Not sure why we didn't consider that when we thought up this genius plan. Except that maybe we were just too happy to have a plan that might actually work out.

Hero gave a valiant attempt to measure and hand cut a sample step to see  how challenging this new development would be. And it was a big pain in the neck. It's not like he can just make a template, cut them all the same and then install. Each one would have to be measured, then he would have to go out to the garage to cut, and then back down to fit them in place. And if it fight perfectly (highly unlikely) he could go on to the next one. 

Like I said, big pain in the neck.

Hero suggested we just take out the old boards and replace them.

Hahahaha!

And then we came back to reality.

After one step, Hero got out the plastic to seal off the area. 

He was ready to give it the old college try to scrape and sand the wood.

Ugh.

Here is a common scenario in our house with things like this:

I try to do something, say scrape ick and goo off the basements steps, and it takes FOREVER to make any progress. at. all.

Hero comes along, throws the scraper around and one step is done in like two minutes. Seriously.

So between the two of us, we got all eleven steps scraped and sanded. Good thing Hero had me to do a few of them.

Heavy duty sanding and scraping action.

Since no project is complete without at least one trip to the store, Hero ended up at Harbor Freight for more sandpaper. Not that he was sad about going to one of his favorite stores.

Now this is more like it! 

I just love that Hero cleans up.

Back to my specialty - Painting!

We decided on two colors with a runner down the center.

I painted the outside color first. Then taped off for the second color.

Painting stairs is a serious exercise in patience. It's not like you can just paint the whole stairway and be done. This kind of project really makes me twitchy.

Here is a trick I learned online with painting stripes on a painted surface. After taping, paint a quick layer of the very same color the new color is next to. That way, if there is any seeping under the tape, it is the same color and there should be very little touch-up. 

After that dries paint the new color. I had to do three coats of paint. One half at a time.

Patience.

And then the tape comes off. There is not anything much more satisfying than pulling the tape off and having an awesome perfect line.

Patience rewarded.

And painting the other side a few days later.

Ta-da!

There are a few little spots to touch up - No biggie. And there are a few spots that need a little caulk and then I need to paint the white trim along the stairs.

And then add something fun.

Progress and Some Ideas

We are working on that plan E for the stairs. It is going to sound a little bit like our kitchen floor, except different. But before we can actually address the step part of the stairs, we needed to do some prep work. 

It was probably a good idea that we did not know exactly how we wanted to go forward quite yet, as prep work is a weakness of mine. 

I am usually so impatient to get started on the part of the project that is just before the finished part.

I used to do things a little backward with projects - Starting in the middle and then having to go back to the beginning because the middle wasn't working out so good. 

Like painting a room - I would totally skip cleaning the area of cobwebs, and go right to painting. Then I would have to stop the painting, clean the brush of dust and cobwebs, clean the corners of dust and cobwebs, get a wet rag for cleaning my fingers, find some gloves, grab the tape to cover edges and get a drink of water and turn on some music.

And then get back to painting.

Hero has been working lots of overtime, so I have had to patiently wait on him to address the steps. And while I am waiting patiently, I am able to work out my impatience with prep work by doing the prep work while I wait. Make sense?

First, have to caulk those gaping cracks. Seriously. Having all that split molding just looks so unattended. It's not the end of the world that those gaps exist, but it is one of those little details that makes such a difference. And it is so easy to fix!

I just squirted that stuff in all the cracks. Piece of cake.

Looks gloppy at first - Don't worry about that. The middle usually looks not finished, because it's not.

Just run a finger along that bead of caulk and it smooths right out. It may need a swipe or two, but it is pretty darn forgiving. 

See how prepared I was? I wore gloves.

Here is how the steps look after they were vacuumed up. So ready to put this look behind us.

I pulled out the primer and got to work. I was hoping (as usual) that this particular project would only need one coat. I painted and painted and painted and when I got done with the first coat, I realized I would need two coats. Rats.

Good thing I am still being patient.

I was pretty pleased with myself that I remembered that if I painted each step all the way down, I would be stuck in the basement for a few hours.

A little tip about primer - It's stinky. There are warnings on the can to use in a well ventilated area, which this area was as much as it could be. Remember the stinky kitchen floor when we stained it?

Yep - I pulled out the candles again. They really work!

When the right side was dry enough to walk on, I got busy on the left side. At this point, Hero woke up (Remember Hero sleeps sometimes during the day because he stays up all night saving lives.)

and asked why I painted the step if we were going to cover it? That is a good question. I thought the same thing as I was painting them. 

You see, I thought our conversation went something like this:

Me - What can I do on the stairs while you sleep all day long?

Hero - Prime everything.

Me - Great idea! I will get right on that.

But Hero probably thought the conversation went more like this:

Me - What can I do on the stairs while you sleep all day long?

Hero - Prime the parts that need to be painted. Don't worry about the step part because we are going to cover that.

Me - I hate priming.

And that is why the steps look like this from this view. 

With the candles.

So that is how it looks in the middle of the project. Not necessarily better looking, but really it is, because it is progress.

Our plan is to cover the step part with the same plywood that we used for the kitchen floor. There simply is no hope for those steps the way there are - Remember they are about 55 years old and have seen plenty of action. Those two layers of linoleum we removed were only a small part of their history.

But we are not going to stain the stairs like we did the kitchen. Since we choose not to paint the kitchen floor at all, we thought the stairs would be the perfect place to do something fun with a painted floor. Here are some inspiration photos we are thinking are pretty darn clever:

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Pretty neat, right?

The thing is with this space, we feel like we can be a little more clever ourselves. As I think about all the changes we have made in the stairwell, I feel like I am channeling all those who lived here before me. They took the opportunity to do something they thought was clever in this little area, and now it's our turn.

Maybe someday in the future, when we are long gone, someone will wonder what the heck we were thinking, too.

But so far, we are liking the plan E.

Stairs Again

We have had some amazing weather lately, which makes it kind of hard to get too busy working in the basement. 

But these stairs needed some serious help.

Hero jumped up to help me figure out how this project was going to roll and it looked tackle-able to us.

Or at least to me. I think I might be on my own with this one for awhile.

We started here:

And look at that! Now we are here:

So, no photos of the unveiling. I had a kiddo that needed a project (in trade for all we do for him) and I came home one day and it was done. He was actually disappointed that it only took him about an hour - He thought it was very rewarding. Um - I understand that concept, I just did not realize he did. I'll have to be sure to take advantage of this new discovery in the future.

The two layers of linoleum came right off, but of course the bottom layer was glued down. And left splotches.

Kind of looks like an abstract cow mural or something:

And a little closer:

Okay - Plan A is to try the "soak with hot water and scrape the residue off" plan. I was warned that it would take several soakings and scraping to get it all off. But after the first soaking and scraping, I was so done.

This photo makes it look like we were actually getting something accomplished here. And perhaps there was a little progress. But believe me when I say "a little". 

This is so not happening.

Plan B - Sand it off. 

Hero jumped up to help me here when I assured him it would be "just one step, to see how it works out". 

Icky steps to strip? Check.

Heavy duty sander? Check.

Shop-vac cranked up and ready to keep the dust under control? Check.

Faux-Crocks? Check.

Making amazing progress? Nope.

And Plan C - vacuum each step and call it a day.

And think about Plan D outside in the great autumn weather.

The Stairs

As Hero was sitting in a comfy chair in the living room, I casually say something along the lines of, 

"We need to get working on another house project".

He is such a good sport - He did not even pretend he didn't hear me.

Our goal for the next few projects is cheap.

We have lots of those.

Ever notice how some of the smaller, less complicated and less expensive projects tend to get forgotten? How nice it would be to get a bunch of those done to get them off the list! I notice that sometimes we put them off until it's time to sell. Then we do a bunch of stuff that we could have enjoyed, for the benefit of someone else. 

Don't let that happen!

Next up for us are the stairs. 

You will notice that we are not quite rid of all that lovely linoleum yet. But this is the last of it. 

Pretty good list of things that we need to accomplish, right?

Holy cow. These things are bad. I have nothing else to say.

Continuing on with my story - Hero was sitting in a comfy chair when I suggested we consider working on the stairs. I get up to go look at the stairs, he gets up to go get a few tools.

And checks out what we are dealing with.

These are just two of the 85,186,163,359,214 reasons I love this man.

First the banged-up, dinged-up trim comes off.

And reveals ickyness underneath.

Then we pull back a tiny little corner of the layer we can see. 

Just as we suspected - Another layer. Why are we not surprised?

Pulling up on the goldenrod, floral-paisley tile reveals that these stairs top out at two layers.

But these are two layers that are really, really glued down.

Rats.

Before we can get much further, that trim at the back edge of each step needs to go.

This one pops off no problem.

Under that little trim we discover black. These steps were painted black at one time. 

At least it is not another layer of tile/linoleum/carpet/mystery that we have to get rid of.

First layer off - Piece of cake.

Take my word for it that the next layer was a pain in the neck.

But look what we were left with. So totally worth it.

No really. We have a plan for this.

A Little Charm

First off, let me just say - I cannot figure out why a few of these photos are sideways. I have tried and tried to get them going the right direction.

Anyway - 

Now that most of the big projects in the kitchen are behind us, we have been getting on some other stuff - like band camp and driver's ed for Liam, cross country meets for Colin, a mini vacation to Traverse City (love!) and trying to keep ahead of the garden. And a few little projects that would easily be left behind if we didn't make the effort to get on them.

I love the little things in decorating that make a space special. Ever been in a model home? They look a little sterile sometimes because there just isn't much personality to the furnishings, artwork or accessories. But it really doesn't take much to make your home feel like your own. 

The best way to get on that is use stuff you love or has a special meaning to you. If you love it, it will most likely work with what you are already have going on. Really. Give it a try.

I came across this cutie little book cover among the things I got from my mom's house. (I promise, the cover was already detached from the book.) I just love its quirky design and that it belonged to my family somehow.

Check out the copyright on this - 1915. So cool.

I grabbed up a frame from IKEA that was a little bit interesting, but not so much that it would overwhelm the art. 

And got out my Sesame Street sheets.

I use pretty fancy drop cloths, right?

I knew I wanted the frame to be dark, like the dark ink on the cover - which by the way is not black but a very awesome dark blue called Payne's Gray (One of my very favorite colors). But I was hoping to add a little interest to the frame by having some layers of color show through.

So I started with a creamy color and then an icy blue-greenish color. Looks kind of fun.

And the first coat of Payne's Gray. 

In my mind this looked a lot better.

But the Sesame Street sheet is looking good.

This could really be a good look for something, but not what I had in mind this time.

So I painted it again and covered up most of that creamy, blueish-greenish color. But that's okay. When you get up close, it is like a little surprise, without being overwhelming.

And the perfect little spot for it - in the very non-1915 kitchen. But that kind of variety can work pretty good. That is what makes a space more personal.

That handy yellow stool in action.

I love the kitchen, I love the stool and I love the cook book cover. For me, they all work together.

And the finished look. 

I am trying to keep things to more of a minimum so that things stay special. Believe me I can get carried away with cool stuff on every wall and on every surface - I just like so many things! 

Have you found any great treasures lately? Did you have to change the plan after the first try didn't work out so well? Are you charming up your space? Let me know!