Stair love

We're also getting the new treads and risers put on the stairs in preparation for sand-and-stain-athon '11. Here's a fun fact: the treads and risers we bought for both sets of stairs (the ones you see here, and eventually the ones going down to the scary basement) cost more than the entire bunch of flooring that we bought for the whole house. Shocking, no? Don't even get me started on the stair railing that we're looking at. Man, stairs and safety and all that, they're an expensive combination.

Adventures in stain

It's almost time to get our floors into shape. We toyed with the idea of just doing a clear stain on the hickory because the multiple shades in all of the pieces look pretty cool. After living with them unfinished for months now, I think we're past that idea and onto the world of stains.

The top row in the photo above is an oil-based gel stain. Very stinky, and the dry time is long. The bottom two rows are all water-based stain that are also low-VOC (nice, because we'll be living in the house while we're staining it). 

I think the winner is going to be the dark walnut (bottom right above, and very bottom right on the photo at the top). It has a nice warmth to it without being orange-y. 

Now to get the guts up to start sanding. 

Containers

I wish this were a post about groovy cool containers that sit in my kitchen or something a little prettier, but I present you with the holy trinity of mega storage: our shipping containers.

Pros: They hold just about everything. They're weather-tight. They've got big locks on them.

Cons: There's a jungle of stuff inside each one. Opening the doors to them can be a major pain. (Also, if you leave a box of Pelligrino in there that you forget to use, when it gets cold out they shatter and make a big mess.)

Behind door number one is our working/holding area, that houses our gigantic bundles of plank panelling, tile and whatever else is in there so it's out of the way until we're ready for it (like the washer and dryer).

Door number two mainly has boxes, and our kitchen table.

And door number three is where the furniture sleeps, all wrapped up and waiting for their turn to come into the house.

Little bit of spring

I didn't buy many bulbs to plant last fall (I couldn't find alliums anywhere, those are some of my favourites), so I went with a paper bag full of mixed crocuses and scattered them next to the walkway. This time last year there were daffodils almost ready to pop open because it was so warm -- I'm kind of hoping it will stay colder longer just so I don't have to get back on garden duty just yet.

Ceiling in the living room

We had a big push to make our deadline for the government eco energy program, and had to have all of our ceilings up before they came to re-assess the house (air tight testing nonsense, phbbbbt). One of the major rooms left was the living room (family room? I never know what to call it).

So here it is, done and done. I must admit, I thought it was going to be more terrible planking all of the ceilings in the house than what it was. It could be the fact that we started with the hardest room: the kitchen, where super long pieces had to be put up. These pieces meant that wobbly jelly arms had to stretch to hold planks like agile monkeys. It also meant a few snippy snappy remarks between certain monkeys. But, this monkey has to admit she's learned some badass nail gun skills along the way.

Enough primate talk, let's admire those planks (that still need to be painted, oh the suffering).

Just because

Cupcakes!

Shocking that this isn't a post showing something being constructed in the house. This isn't a food blog, but I think it counts that these were made in the kitchen, which is something I didn't have this time last year. All hail kitchens!  They make life good.