OMG, my stairs are awe inspiring.

I just wrote the longest post in my entire blog history and blogger ate it. That's just par for the course in today's project world.

So...the stairs in my house were awful. They were made so by the Previous Home Owners (hereby referred to as the PHO). The PHOs did lots of things that were horrendous such as decorating the backyard with bowling balls, decorating the dining room and kitchen with six different types of wallpaper, PAINTING and then GLUING carpeting to the stairs.

Our project began many, many moons ago..

Yuck.

And pretty much sat that way for ages. But, Thing 3 was born and threatened to crawl, so we had to make a move. Plus the Grandmas were getting nervous with all that up and down the stairs and no hand rail. And, to be fair, Thing 2 did go tip over tail over the side of the stairs. He survived.

Hard at work

The stair remodel was horrible. The actual treads were easy peasy. Sand, stain, revarnish. We did have to live through a scary period where the treads weren't nailed down and some of them were missing entirely. The risers were a little more difficult. But the spindles, handrails, and newel post...holy smokes! That was something else. There was so much sanding...I'm pretty sure my kids huffed lead based paint at some point, but I'm counting on my extremely high IQ to counterbalance the damage.

So, we're not 100% there; the walls still need to be repainted (especially after Thing 2's bloody nose, creepy finger trailing up the wall incident), but we're good to go re: Thing 3 crawling.

Somebody should contact Bob Villa.

Money poor...

...but talent rich?

I wasn't sure where to go with this post, but my husband and I have been doing a lot of home updates that are somewhat aesthetic, somewhat costly, and mostly necessary (depending on who you ask). A recent update included sanding and resurfacing the dining room table. We are mostly able to save on the costly part because We are so handy. See how the "We" is capitalized? My husband may or may not have been a carpenter for the last 13 years or so, but I am a really good supervisor!

The table is a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down. I'm pretty sure my parents received it in lieu of a payment many, many moons ago. Back when flint stones were needed to light fires. Anyhoo, any finish that the top table surface might have at one point had was worn to the bone and after every meal (or "washable" marker mishap) I was forced to scrub, scrub, scrub the table. Well, begone table elbow! Welcome my New To Me Table.

Et voila!

Why? What did you do while YOU watched the Superbowl?

I probably should have been giving either this project or the Superbowl my undivided attention, but in the end, they both turned out great!

I've been majorly hating on my couch and couch pillows for several years now. Almost since I got them! But I've never done anything about it. Pretty lame on my part. But no more! Welcome to my newest sofa pillows.

Je t'adore.