Not a lot of time and energy to work on the house tonight. But I did cut out a set of risers for the stairs.

Glued them on.

Tried to place the stairs in the stairwell, but realized it was just a little too wide.

So tore off the risers, cut a sliver off the end of them, and glued them back in again.

Then cut out two treads and sanded down the front edge…before realizing I had cut them across the grain instead of with the grain (as you can see from the cupping / warping of the treads on the photo). So I’ll need to do those again tomorrow.

Too tired to get anything else done tonight, so that’s all there is.

Good night.

More wainscoting for the stairway.

Glued it into place with the handrail.

Then had to do some fiddling to fit the landing wainscoting correctly, and cut out the last slat to cover the crack between the two pieces.

So with the piece stained and glued in, this side of the stairs is done.

Had to create a temporary landing in order to measure the next flight of stairs correctly.

Then taped the stairway pattern onto the wall to see how it would work.

Cut out one stair support.

Then the second one.

Stained them both and placed them in the stairwell.

I think it’ll work…although somehow, in the back of my head, I feel like I may be doing something wrong here. Time to go to bed and sleep on it before going on.

Good night.

Back to the stairs again…

Started by cutting out the other baseboard/trim for the stairs.

Then, after notching out the slits for the treads, I fit the trim on the stairs.

Stained the trim and then placed the stairs into the stairway.

With the trim finished, it was time to finally glue the stairs, as well as the two trims, into the stairwell.

While that dried, I created a back for the wine cellar.

Then I started to cut out the slats for the wainscoting.

Stained them, glued them on, created a top rail, glued the stair landing in place, then glued the wainscoting and rail onto the wall.

Laid the landing wainscoting in place (it still needs a bit of adjusting so it fits right) and that’s all for tonight.

I’ll get to the wainscoting on the other side and the other flight of stairs next time.

Good night.

Started on the landing today. Painted the underside to match the pantry.

Then painted the top black…

…and glued the floorboards on.

Placed the wainscoting on the side to see if that worked with the pattern.

Placed the landing on top of the stairs.

Works quite nicely there, I think.

Then I started cutting out trim for above the staircase.

Had to painstakingly notch out the top of each step to fit the edges of the treads…

…until it fit snugly.

Cut out a back board for the wainscoting as well and then placed both of them in the stairway.

Couldn’t see the wood well enough to decide if I liked it or not, so stained it before putting it back in place.

I’m pretty sure I like the effect, but I’ll sleep on it tonight and see in the morning.

Good night.

 

Started today with the glamorous job of filling the crack in the back corner of the right-hand side of the pantry.

Filled it and then painted over it.

Then measured out the space where the wine cellar would go.

Made the outside frame and stained it.

Added diagonal slats…

…and more slats…

…and placed it under the stairs. Also finished the black trim for the walls and glued them on.

Took a few photos of the room with the kitchen and the rest of the house next to it lit up in the dark:

(The metal post is not part of the house, but the edge of the acrylic box protecting the back of the house.)

Then I took a few keys that had come with the back door locks/door plates, and made a key ring for them.

Hammered a tiny nail into the wall and hung them up.

Finally, I made a hole in the wall for the electric wires to pass through, so the table lamp could sit more naturally.

The right-hand side of the pantry will need plenty of shelves, but in order to know how high they go, I will have to create the second flight of stairs first. So that’s tomorrow’s job.

For now…good night.

Worked on the back hallway and the pantry again today.

Needed to paint some trim black for the pantry doorway into the kitchen.

Then cut out and glued on the black trim for the pantry walls.

Next it was time to paint the other side wall a light buttermilk color.

Decided the light should go at the bottom of the stairs so it would light up both the hallway and the flight of stairs.

And carefully glued the wall into place, making sure everything squared off neatly. Glued the doorway in, too.

Then it was time to paint both sides of the three-story center wall of the staircase. Also patched up the edge of it with wood filler so it would be smooth…

…before sanding it down and painting it. Then glued the wall into place (the landing and stairs are still only taped in for now).

(No, there isn’t a ghost living under the stairs…I just need to clean my camera lens.)

Next cut out, stained, and glued the pieces for the wainscoting on the landing.

Placed it on the landing to see what it would look like.

I know the wall will actually be twice as high as this when I do the next floor, and yes, there will be wainscoting all the way up the staircase, but still, something about it doesn’t feel proportionately correct.

Thought I’d get back to it later, so instead I started cutting out pieces for a table in the pantry.

Rounded down the edges of the table and the bottoms of the legs, stained the pieces, and glued them together.

Placed it in the pantry…

…added the table lamp…

…and decided the table was just a little too high. So lopped a little off the top of the legs, gave the table a quick swipe of varnish, and placed it back in the pantry.

This is the table where the pantry supplies book will be kept, and the records for the wine bottles, as well as the house keys. The wine cellar will be right behind it under the stairs.

Much more to do tomorrow. Until then, good night.

Went back to the wainscoting for the back hallway tonight.

Finished cutting out all the pieces.

Stained them with walnut stain.

Started gluing them together…

…and decided the spacing between the slats was too wide. So ripped them off and started again with narrower spaces.

Placed the wainscoting piece in place to see what it would look like.

Then realized I hadn’t glued anything down in this hallway last fall, so I took all the pieces apart.

Painted two of the hallway walls a light buttermilk color.

Glued the side wall into place.

Glued the “tile” floor onto the pantry under the stairs.

Glued the back wall into place.

Glued in the little black door step between the “tiles” and the kitchen to cover the crack there.

Started gluing the floorboards onto the back hallway (pushing them all the way to the kitchen doorway, once again to cover the crack between the two, since these are two separate sections of the house).

Finished those and then glued the wainscoting onto the back wall.

Then I had to deal with the crack in the corner between the two walls.

Used wood filler to fix it up and then painted over it.

Then pulled this section of the house away from the kitchen section, just to make sure I hadn’t glued them together accidentally. The house itself will be in three different interlocking sections, otherwise it cannot be taken through doorways and would need to stay here forever.

Here it is separated and pushed back together again.

Then I needed to paint the third wall of the hallway.

Cut out pieces for the wainscoting for this wall.

Stained them and then glued them into place, using one of the slats as a spacer.

Also cut out and stained trim for the doorway into the kitchen. Had to cut out a couple notches so it would fit around the wainscoting.

Then I glued the little inner wall into place.

And glued the wainscoting and the door trim on.

Tomorrow I will paint and finish up this last side wall and doorway (simply laid in place for this photo)…

…as well as this wall in the middle of the staircase (also laid in place).

I also need to continue with the wainscoting up the staircase, the staircase needs lighting, and the pantry under the stairs needs shelves and a wine cellar.

But for now, I leave you with this image of the unfinished area.

Good night!

Hello, hello. I am back!

So when I wasn’t at work, I basically spent the past three months on the couch dealing with 24-hour morning sickness as best I could.  And the house got  hopelessly neglected…

But that seems to be over now and I’m also back from the holiday celebrations, and so the new plan is to try and get as much done on the house before life becomes suddenly quite busy this summer.

So this is where the house was when I left it last:

I did manage to procure a few key pieces amid all the nausea, including this fabulous Victorian organ for the sitting room:

So the front sitting room will look vaguely like this in setup.

And I got this really cool pie cabinet for the pantry under the stairs:

Started work today by tracing out a pattern of the floor for this section (which I had forgotten to do earlier), so I could use it as a ceiling pattern and second-floor pattern later on.

Then I returned to the back staircase which is almost done. Decided that the baseboard I used in the hallway simply would not do.

This is the hallway/staircase where all the buckets and mops and coal scuttles would be carried through, and it needed to be better protected against all that wear and tear.  So I decided to make a simple wainscoting that would continue up the stairs.

But I needed more materials for that, so I went out to get some and then started creating the wainscoting.

Didn’t get  terribly far with it, but you have to keep in mind that a lot of my house-making time was spent driving very slowly in the slightly freezing rain to a town 15 miles away where I get my supplies…and then just as slowly back again afterward.

I’ll get more done on it tomorrow. But for now, it feels good to be back at it again.

I’ll leave you with a photo of this awesome organ which will find its home in the music room on the second floor (I pity the movers who have to bring that one up!)

Good night and happy New Year to one and all!

Got to work on the back hallway today. Started by painting the floor base black so the cracks between the floor boards would look better.

Cut out some floor boards…

Stained them and laid them down in place.

Also stained the door frame, a base board, and a few extra spots on the staircase…

Then, because I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, instead of making the landing simple floor boards, I created a pattern.

Stained some of the boards…

And here you go….I may still stain the lighter boards the same color to make the pattern a bit more subtle…these are the back stairs after all.

Next I created the back wall for the pantry under the stairs.

Painted and trimmed it and placed it in the correct space (nothing is glued in yet…not even the floor boards. I want to make sure everything fits first).

Here’s the view of the pantry and the back hall from the kitchen….excuse the reflections in the glass.

And viewed from the drawing room doorway…

Next I will need to create the second set of stairs…laid a piece of white cardboard here to show how it will look.

So happy to be back at it again…looking forward to receiving the lights for the hallway and stairs in the mail. Stairs next…and a wine cellar and shelves…

For now…good night.

With the framed picture finally hung above the fireplace, I decided it was time to do a photo shoot of the nursery.

Enjoy.

(PS This seems to be my hundredth post!)