New Stairs Day 3

Our floor re-finisher came over this week to install new hardwood floors on the upstairs landing and stain the new stairs ... except they only do the floors. Isn't that weird?



So the banister/newel posts etc are still not stained, but here's how it looks now with the new floors. We're jazzed!

BEFORE

AFTER

And here's Matt doing what he loves ... painting!

New Stairs Day 2

The stairs have been installed. What a difference from the way it looked before.

The only thing left to do is the banister that goes into the downstairs family room, it will connect to the upstairs newel post to make it all one piece.

And of course it all needs to get stained and painted.

New Stairs Day 1

Today and tomorrow our new stairs are being put in. Unfortunately, another job delayed our stair guy today so we just got some demolition done, but you can see how it looks ... as well as our new paint job.

Rain Barrel water pumps?

Has anyone had any experience with water pumps for rain barrels?

We are now a 2-rain barrel household, having just installed the 2nd rain barrel on the other side of the garage.  Now the entire roof of the garage goes into a rain barrel (we have 3 separate roofs on our house).

This rain barrel was free; we found it behind my dad's shed, a place where things go to die. Where he got if from is anyone's guess; but then again, the man is a mystery. 

Now that we have these 2 barrels, I have decided that I am sick of carrying watering cans full of water all over my yard. I want to use the hose but there's not enough pressure.

Solution? A water pump.

I saw landscapers using pumps to water our Memorial Park in our downtown; they brought huge vats of water to the site on flat bed trucks and then they pumped the water as if it were a hose connected to a main line. I watched in awe.

I found some pumps on Cleanairgardening.com but it seems that if it says Rain Barrel Pump, the price is double. Is there another kind of pump that works as well? Sump Pump? Pool Pump?

Step 5: Paint

In my inspiration photo, the walls are painted Benjamin Moore's Greenbriar Beige. So I went to the store and checked it out against my cabinet blue doors, along with other beige shades. ( I'm new to beige and I never knew there were so many shades of beige!) I ended up sticking with the original color.Now that it's on the walls, I'm not so sure. It's more green than I imagined, but my mom thinks that's because the room doesn't have enough light. Plus, my cabinet is more blue than the inspiration cabinet, so maybe that's also changing the look.

So now the plan is to see about adding more light -- another can light, replace the florescent tube lights... something to make it brighter.

Step 4: Spackle, Sand, Prime

Stairs on schedule

About a month ago, I talked about getting someone in to remodel our staircase.  I can't believe we took this long to call the guy for an estimate, but I guess between looking at 500 magazines to get ideas and then going to Nashville/Louisville, we never picked up the phone. 

So the work will begin shortly and he'll be installing all the components beginning next Thursday. The best part – it should take 2 days to install.

I've never had a contractor work on anything; so to go through ideas and talk about options was exactly what I needed. And I figured out that the reason my dad and I probably argue so much over remodeling is that I need to talk about projects and have a plan.  He doesn't (or if he does, he doesn't tell you what it is) and that stresses me out.
 
I guess I'm not the fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants gal I thought I was.