A (very) quick attic update...

We've been busy with birthdays, spring cleaning, & general summer fun in the past couple weeks as the weather has been beautiful.  FINALLY!

In between all of that, I've squeezed in a little bit of work on the attic.  Thought I'd share a few quick snaps of the progress!

I added some white pom trim to the bunk curtains.  Love it.  Can't ever go wrong with pom poms.  (Well...pom pom trim anyway.)

Dad working hard hanging up the stair rails.  $20 on Craig's List...a lot of elbow grease...& the satisfaction of reusing something that would have ended up in a landfill.  (The railings are spray-primed in the picture below.  Mom & I spent the better part of the weekend brushing them by hand.  Not a fun task.)

Almost done painting in this picture.  Black posts & horizontal rails, white spindles.

Finished stair rails & old wood floor.

And last but not least...the icing on the cake...I started painting the floor late last night!  I'm in LOVE.  My office will soon be set up in that little nook.  Can. Hardly. Wait.

That's it for now!  I'll try to post some non-iphone shots later this week, but we've got a big 5th birthday party at our house this weekend that I'm busy prepping for, so I can't make any promises!

Thanks for hanging in there for this massive attic project.  It's taken us waaaaaaay longer than I ever expected...but I also love the space way more than I anticipated...so I suppose it's all worth it in the end!

Still on the list:

• Finish painting the floor
• Finish closets
• Under eave storage doors
• Knock out stairwell doorway & repair
• Random odds & ends

Eeek!

A Quick Attic Update

I got everything primed late Sunday night...like 11:00pm late.  But it's done.  And it is glorious.

I'm going to attempt to get everything painted with the final coat this week.

Then we should be able to hang the light & get the planks up on the upper portion of the window wall.  After that comes the trim.  We've got a long holiday weekend coming up, so I'm hoping I can get most of the painting & trim finished - eek!

After that, my dad will be working his crazy carpenter wizardry to fit these $25 Craigslist stair rails around our stairwell.  Once the rails get fit into place, I can paint that darn floor & start doing the fun stuff...like decorating!

It's the final countdown!

Finally.

Attic Update 8: Stairs

Ok, we all know where these stairs started.  Old, unfinished, dirty & damaged orange-toned wood.  Ignore the cat butt in the top of this photo - his name is Chaz & he's into photobombing...in inappropriate ways.

 I had already primed half of the risers a while back.  Um, like last April...

Then, last week I bit the bullet & stained the treads Minwax's "Jacobean".  It was looking pretty scary & I really had to work hard to keep myself from panicking.  SO DARK.

Then I put 4 coats of polyurethane on the treads with a cheap foam brush...waiting the recommended 2 hours between coats.  It was an all day process, but I probably only spent a little over an hour actually working on it...the rest of the time was spent waiting for each coat to dry.

Pretty treads!  (The rest, at this point, is still awful...& still scaring me.)

Then I put another coat of primer on the risers.  It's looking better after each step, isn't it?  At this point I started to see the light.

The top half of the risers have two coats of primer...the bottom 5 have only one coat in this picture.  I was really hoping I could get by with only one coat of paint, but I was mentally preparing for two.  This is also before I filled nail holes & caulked the gaps where the treads meet the risers & next to the stringers(?).
 

Yesterday, I caulked some gaps & nail holes over my lunch break, & put another coat of primer/paint-in-one on the risers.  I think I'll be able to call it good after one more coat...& perhaps a few small touch-ups.

I really love the color of the treads now...& actually love all of the dings & imperfections in the wood.

It's all very strange & exciting to see things in the attic {slowly} coming together...

Right now all want to do is go touch my new stairs.  So buttery smooooooth!  :)

In addition to one more coat of paint, I still have to replace the old hand rail, open up the door at the bottom of the stairs (opens into the space between the dining & living rooms), paint the walls, & possibly nail up some board & batten type trim on the stairwell walls.  It's already looking 100% better than what we started with though!

Attic Checklist:
insulation: between rafters, loose in walls, foamboard on ceiling
frame up walls & closets
level out ceiling & jack up sagging roof
new electrical throughout attic
new window
planks in bunk & on upper portion of end walls
move vent from closet to bedroom
drywall (hang, tape, mud, sand)
build, paint, hang French doors
prime, paint (one more coat), stain, varnish steps
remove door to attic & open up
prime & paint walls & ceiling
spray, make, & hang lights
finish floors (stain, paint, just varnish?)
paint & install stair railings
paint & install baseboard trim
paint & install board & batten trim
closet systems
storage doors for under eave access

Attic Update 6: Random little things...

I misplaced/lost/forgot my camera charger at my grandpa's 95th birthday party a few weeks ago.  Therefore you'll have to deal with iphone pics until my replacement charger arrives...sorry.

We're nearly to the point of hanging drywall, but there are a few small things we're doing as we wait to start on that in a few weeks.

First, we started to take out the last remaining original window in the house this weekend, but after climbing up the ladder, dad deemed it too windy to keep at it & we had to settle for just loosening things up & cutting the wood to frame the new window in.  Con = no new window...yet.  Pro = everything is prepped & ready to go for a (hopefully) smooth replacement this weekend.

(Please ignore the state of the siding on this side of the house.  Eek!  The hot south sun is killing it.  It's on the schedule to be replaced in the spring...this cannot happen soon enough.) 

Since we didn't work on the window on Sunday, I decided to sand & stain the stair treads instead.  It looks pretty scary right now...half primed & stained.  I'm keeping the faith that it'll only get better as I finish priming, painting, & finishing them.

The French Doors are also ready for paint!  I bought the hinges & dad put them on the doors yesterday.  I also bought a couple of 1940's glass doorknobs on Etsy for a steal - $12 for two sets with back plates!  I'm planning on spraying the back plates ORB to match the new hinges.  Right now I'm leaning toward painting the door yellow to coordinate with the yellow stained glass in the corners.  That could change though.  I'm always changing my mind - ha!

I think that's all I've got for you on the attic.  Hopefully after this weekend we'll have a new window, primed doors, & be one step farther along on the stairs.  It's always good to dream big, right?! :)

Attic Checklist:
insulation: between rafters, loose in walls, foamboard on ceiling
frame up walls & closets
level out ceiling & jack up sagging roof
new electrical throughout attic
new window
planks in bunk & on upper portion of end walls
move vent from closet to bedroom
drywall (hang, tape, mud, sand)
build, paint, hang French doors
prime, paint, stain, varnish steps
remove door to attic & open up
prime & paint walls & ceiling
spray, make, & hang lights
finish floors (stain, paint, just varnish?)
paint & install stair railings
paint & install baseboard trim
paint & install board & batten trim
closet systems
storage doors for under eave access