Two Little Steps

Another small step in my remodel project - the stairs leading from the front hall into the family room.

I removed the ruined carpet only to discover that the treads, at 10-1/2 inches deep, were almost flush with the risers. My initial plan to paint them wouldn't work. So I bought a couple hickory treads, 11-1/2 inches wide, finished them with water-borne urethane made for floors, and installed them. Also touched up the trim with some Duration in Extra White.

They aren't terrific, but they are certainly better than before.

Piano Room Remodel

 Done.

The piano room (aka the living room or front room) remodel is complete.

This is the least-used room in our house. Even still, the carpet was shot. The original paint was tired. The curtains were dusty and had never been cleaned. It needed to be updated, with new colors and better materials.

We settled on solid wood. Our basement is dry, heated and air conditioned, with its air continuously circulated throughout the house, so our house is a fine candidate for wood floors. We are lucky to have a flooring mill about an hour away. I spent the better part of a year ordering and examining flooring samples from all over. I taught myself what to look for and how to tell quality from junk. If I have a fault, it's that I can study a topic to death.

Once we settled on solid flooring, that I would install myself, we had to pick a species and finish. Brazilian cherry is all the rage, maybe to the point of being dated. Acacia looks nice, but doesn't grow tall, resulting in many short boards. But, really, one of my fears was having a couple tons of wood dropped off at the end of my driveway, in whatever weather, for me to deal with. Bah. For us, a local mill with local products would do just fine.

So off to Sheoga we went to look at flooring. We have a lot of cherry in our house. Cherry kitchen. Cherry master bathroom. I like cherry. It's easy to work with and dimensionally stable. My wife, however, thought it was "too red" and chose hickory, instead. Character hickory, with knots and veins and what-not.

I chose the paint color (Temperate Taupe by Sherwin-Williams). The ceiling got painted white.

So, for $1000 of flooring and a few hundred in tools, paint, etc. we have an entirely new room.
I have the rest of the house to attack, in a similar manner, this winter and spring.