Pleasant colors
The no-kill shelter where we got Tubby, Mister Boogers, Miz Poo, Tom Cullen, and Sugarbutt is in critical need of money. And by critical I mean CRITICAL. If by chance you love kitties and have any spare money, there’s information here on how you can help.
When we’re out working in Smallville on the weekends, Robyn and I like to take walks around the perimeter of the property at least once a day. Sure it’s dorky, but it’s a nice break from all the work and it’s fun. It’s kind of neat to have enough property that a slow stroll around the outside edge takes ten or fifteen minutes (we stop a lot to look at stuff). Fall is falling in Smallville, and the property has turned right pretty. Friday I snapped a few pictures while we were on a perimeter walk.
When the wind blows, the falling leaves are like whirls of snow.
That thing to the left is my log-splitting stump.
I love to stand under trees and look up through the branches.
Even the mud puddle pond looks nice when surrounded by fall colors.
In the foreground, a pecan tree practices its Poltergeist look.
The upstairs is more or less complete. We still have to do the bathroom, but we’re planning to do all the bathrooms at once when we’ve done everything else.
I’m about 90% pleased with the upstairs. Problem is, I’m not sure if I can meet my own standards to get that up to 100%. I’m pretty sure I can get it up to 95%, though, and that’s probably good enough. There are flaws in what I’ve done, as there are flaws in most everything anyone does. Since I know about the flaws, they’re all I see when I look around; hence the 90% satisfaction. I’m debating taking a day to spend on the upstairs, just fixing the little things: places where paint gets outside its borders, or where the caulking has gaps, or where there’s a visible space between boards in the wall, or pieces of molding don’t line up perfectly.
It’s hard to be this anal, but someone needs to be. None of the fixes are hard to do, just time-consuming and boring.
Plus, I cheated a little on the stairwell. I didn’t caulk the molding, and now the spaces are all I can see when I look around because I know they’re there. Since I’ve told you, they’re probably all you’ll see too. There isn’t much I hate about what we’re doing at the Smallville house, but caulking sits at the top of the list. I suck at it, and it’s messy as hell.
I did it in the bedrooms because it needed to be done for things to look good, but hated every second of it. The thought of trying to run a bead of caulk around all the molding in the stairwell without getting it all over the place—while perched at the top of the ladder—just makes my butt pucker. I don’t want to do it.
But I know I need to do it, or it’ll bug me.
I also need to go back to the first room and fix all the mistakes. That room was my learning room, so it looks the worst of everything. It’s all easy to do, but it’s hard not to procrastinate because I like to feel like I’m moving forward on the progress out there instead of going back to something I goofed.
Anyway, on to the hall and stairwell.
Robyn’s the designated taper. Tapist?
The old stairwell lamp didn’t put out much light at all.
There’s a ghost in this picture, cleverly disguised as a piece of reflective dust.
This is a good place for a pause. Take a moment, if you will, and look closely at the stairs. We’re in a dilemma about them.
It strikes me that the stairs, landing, newel post, and bannister would look good painted. Perhaps a nice hunter green, or some other dark color. I’ve seen painted stairs before in old houses, and they looked good. In my head, our stairs would look good painted, too.
At the same time, I’m not sure how well paint would hold up under foot traffic. It seems to me that it might scuff up and off the wood fairly easily, particularly if shoes were worn on it. Anyone out there have experience with painted stairs? Is there a special paint for them, or should I use something like exterior paint (if we decide to paint them, that is), or what?
Looking the other way down the hall.
Another ghost, and some odd outside corner molding to deal with.
That was then. This is now:
Kind of creamy; kind of yellowy.
Hanging that light was a nightmare of epic proportion…
…but we like it so much more.
It puts out hella light and heat. Such is the difference between seven 60-watt
bulbs and four 30-watt ones.
Imagine how nice that would look in hunter green.
Or perhaps stained darker, like with a cherry or mahogany stain.
I solved the molding issue with cheater boxes. I really like the look.
Note that someone needs to run a bead of caulk down the far piece of molding.
That’s one of those 90% things I was talking about. I didn’t notice that one until
I saw the pictures.
Blurred, but look at how bright those risers are.
I’m pleased with the overall look, but I know the corners need caulk or it’ll bug me forever.
It’s hard to see, but there’s a small brownish-maroon stain on the ceiling to the left of the vent. It bled through the ceiling paint, a coat of Killz primer put on to stop it, then a second coat of ceiling paint. It isn’t wet that I can tell. When I rub it, my finger smells metallic (or “like blood,” as Robyn says). I went into the attic to see if I could find the source, and the stain is directly beneath the air conditioner unit. I’m guessing there’s some condensation going on, so it looks like it’s time to get a pro out there to look at it.
Check out the shiny spot where Fred missed when he was painting the ceiling.
Another one of those things you don’t see until the flash lights it up.
We’ll probably take a couple of days to do little things, then it’s time to start on the downstairs. First up: the computer room, at the back of the house. That’s where I get to try my hand at putting up sheetrock tape and joint compound.
I vote for NOT painting the stairs, landing, newel post, and bannister. I do think a dark stain would look good, though. That’s just my preference, though.
Everything looks amazing. You two are doing a great job. What a great feeling it will be to finally move in there and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Use porch and deck paint for the stairs. Lowes is a great place to find it in a great range of colors. Things are looking great in the house. The trees are beautiful.
I have tried painting stairs before and unfortunately straight down the middle where you walk gets dirty and worn out fast. I would go for the stain, with a sealant over it. Your house looks beautiful, by the way. You’re doing a great job.
Fred, it looks great! You have become a Master Painter. Love the kinder, gentler pale color in the hall and stairwell. You’re right about the new light fixture…although I still like the older ones. I’m hoping you’re not tossing them out…sell them on EBAY.
Fred I painted stairs in my old house, they were originaly grey, yuck. I did white risers with a dark brown step, they came out great. Yes, use deck paint, I am sure thats what I used or something specificly made for floors. Your house looks great. I would vote no on the green, buts thats just my opinion.
I love the cream/yellow paint!! Got to know the name of the color!!!
As for the stairs.. what about staining them a hunter green??
I have purchased stains in colors and they are always beautiful!! But I haven’t tried walking on it to see how it wears…
We’ve painted our stairs, and I don’t really like the way it looks. I think stain would look nice (but that is more of a personal preference).
You could go the best of both worlds and stain the stairs and run a hunter green runner down them.
I’d go with a stain. Actually, I probably would have stained much of the wood in the house as opposed to painting over it, but that’s just me.
and Thanks for the info on the shelter…will see what I can to to help them out.
Please don’t paint the stairs. I grew up with painted wood floors/stairs and, even though it was deck/floor paint, I remember picking great flakes of it off my feet. Ick. Dark stain would be great, and I agree with Lorraine … a Hunter Green runner would be a nice compromise.
Great job you guys are doing. Love to see the progress.
Fred - I’ve been following your updates with quiet joy. We’ve just purchased property north of here (5.5 acres) and although there’s nothing on it yet (except for old stone field walls that date back to the late 1700’s!) it’s been neat to watch someone else claim their property as their own.
We currently live in an old Victorian - circa 1870. This past week I stripped the carpet off the old stairs, and am currently in the process of removing what I think is approximately 500 layers of paint from the stairs.
You cannot imagine the pain/agony/frustration that stripping these has caused. I know that the folks before me slapped on additional paint everytime it looked bad, and then decided to carpet the whole damn thing because it had become butt-ugly.
IF you paint your stairs, I will hunt. you. down.
Our plan is to strip the suckers down, and then stain them. After staining, I’ll stencil a bit - and then we’ll polyurethane them.
Um, that’s all. Carry on!
Well first off, you missed one of the ghosts. It’s in the window of the picture captioned “looking the other way down the hall.” LOL
Anyway, I say stain the stairs mahogany, it’ll look absolutely gorgeous.
Thanks, Fred, for the beautiful Fall pictures of your property!I always love the look of the leaves at “half peak” with a “carpet” of leaves beneath them.
The work you and Robyn are doing looks so beautiful and I understand about the 90% thing. My son, who was a wood carver, always said if you want something perfect it’s going to be done by a machine and not a person. I try to keep that in mind with some of my projects.
I love the color you put in the hall and the white trim compliments it beautifully, IMHO. I’m certainly in the miniority, but I love the warm glow of the present color on the stairs, it has a vintage look to me kind of like the color of an old fashioned school desk. I’d stain them about the same color and put a top sealer on to protect the finish.
Thanks, guys.
Katrina, I completely missed that one. Apparently, there are loads of ghosts here. Hopefully that blood-smelling stain on the ceiling isn’t related to any of them.
I say no to paint on the stairs too. Staining a reddish would be nice. Your house looks great. Congrats!
I’m really diggin’ your stairwell light fixture. However,…imagine…..changing the lightbulbs in that bad boy.
Okgottago!
I love these updates. I have to say… stain the stairs, they are just too pretty to paint.
Painted stairs = TOTAL NIGHTMARE!
Run…run…away from the paint..away…
I’m for staining the stairs rather than painting them too
I cannot believe you painted the damn hallway! People, you have no idea how freaking high that ceiling really is! Robyn, I hope you upped his life insurance because Fred is now a certified danger junkie.
It does look great, though. And I’m really glad I wasn’t there to see you doing it. How’s our waitress at the diner doing? I can’t help thinking about her and wondering if she has a blog out there in which she goes on and on and on about things. Heh.
OK, I have no experience with stairs and painting them, but we had a test rig which we painted and then polyurethaned the living crap out of (it got heavy use and we didn’t want to deal with having to repaint the sucker every three projects). Don’t know if Polyurethaning is a good thing for stairs, might be a tad slippery, but it sure did hold up under some serious usage.
Personally, I’d keep the wood au natural(ish) with maybe a hunter green stain if you want to go for color.
I agree about the stairs - stain, ok - paint, not so much. The hunter green runner is a good alternative, but it will get covered with cat hair. I think I remember Robyn mentioning that she hated vacuuming the stairs in the old place…?
Could you hire someone to finish the caulking in the hight spots? Save going up on the ladder again…
Hi Fred!
Why don’t you paint the white part of the riser a hunter green (the white will show every mark and scuff) and stain the wood a nice deep mahogany?
I think the oil based stains are suppposed to be more durable but you new best friends at Lowe’s can help you out there.
The house looks great!
A friend of mine has a beautiful dark olive green runner on her stairs, but she tells me that it’s awful because it’s hard to see the next step at night — lighter colors are better.
Just something to think about.
No, I wouldn’t paint the stairs. I think with the quantity of painted wood you already have indoors, the contrast of a little natural-grain is too nice to miss out on. I like the idea of a darker woodstain with a hunter-green runner, or a hunter-green stain - that sounds like it could be really unusual and nice.
Personally I would have the runner, but that’s because noisy stairs annoy me and carpet mutes the sound of footfalls slightly. And I’d want a dark runner, because stair-carpets get a lot of wear - anything light-coloured would need constant hoovering. I think with a light fitting that bright in your stairwell you wouldn’t have too much of a problem seeing where to put your feet. Alternatively, the hunter-green woodstain would keep the light bouncing around more.
I look forward to seeing what you choose!
If I could get down on my knees ang BEG you not to paint your stairs I would!!! Well I can, but you can’t see me. PLEASE don’t paint the stairs or banister! The wood is beautiful. Just needs a little sanding and stain. Cherry or Mohogany would be lovely.
My 2 cents.
Fred, the new color for the halls and stairway is just gorgeous–amazing how much bigger the space looks with a lighter color.
I’ve lived in houses with painted stairs, and they always looked worn and scuffed, unfortunately. The paint might not have been good-quality, though. I think a slightly darker stain would be beautiful and a nice contrast with the crisp white trim.
I love those trees.