Halfway up the stairs

Sooooooo, now I am 23 years into my 3 year project and I have just completed the lower section of my staircase. Here is what it looked like 23 years ago.

Eight months later it looked like this.

From 2008 until present it looked like this at the bottom. I wrote a post back in 2008 about the volute. There were seven missing balusters.

I finally found some that were similar in shape and long enough to use in 2023. They were painted white and were several different types of wood. The original ones are cherry. I finally got off my duff this month and stripped the paint from the replacement balusters and "painted" them with Miniwax Polyshades American Chestnut. I had to do some repairs on the hand rail using resin wood filler. Here are before and after photos.

With the balusters in place and the hand rail set I had to apply the Polyshades to all the balusters to make them look alike. I then could apply Miniwax Polyshades Classic Black to the hand rail. Once done I waxed everything with furniture wax applied with fine steel wool. The whole process took several weeks due to drying time between coats of polyurathane. It looks like this now. Yay me!

Buying in Bulk

Back in September 2008, I made my first set of bulk head doors but they only lasted a few years. It seems that wood doors in this location are subject to wet and dry rot fungus. I made a second set and treated the wood with linseed oil. The fungus gets into the tongue and groove and takes hold. This second set of doors would not have survived the winter so I broke down and spent money on this.

Today I painted them, so now they look like this.

Third time lucky I guess!

The Upper Deck is Done

For many years our upper porch deck has looked awful. There was a roof leak and gutter issues that caused sections of the floor to rot out. There were also no railings around the upper porch. Well, it has been rebuilt by yours truely and I have made screens to keep the mosquitos at bay. Here is what it looks like now.

The next project is to replace the wood bulk head doors with metal ones and to build a metal shed in the back yard.

Remember When?

If you have been following this site for any amount of time then you may remember the images of the house we lived in before finally moving into the Old Crack House in 2009. In case you forgot, here is a link. Then in 2016, after renting it for 7 years. This happened. Well, I finally got it all fixed up and we sold it in May 2022. Here are some pictures of how it looked in March when the photos were taken.

The front of the house.

The entry hall and living room

The dining room

The kitchen and butler pantry

Staircase to 2nd floor

The bathroom

Bedrooms

The finished attic

The basement

Rear of house and garage Now the one thing I did find that puts a date on the house was this little medallion that was covered in paint and nailed above the front steps to the porch.

It reads "Board of Review" and dated 1911. Now I am back to working on projects at the "Old Crack House" since I am now 21 years into my three year project.