Monday, February 26, 2007

While I Was Out

Events at our house this past weekend seemed an awful lot like an episode of TLC's "While You Were Out"! I had the immense blessing of flying to Denver for a few days to visit some dear friends. While I was gone, my generous father-in-law--the man I have to thank for my husband's remodeling skills and knowledge--came down to help Steve work on the house. Their weekend agenda: move/rebuild the stairs, knock out a wall, add a support beam and cut a hole in my dining room.

From the sounds of things, I'm glad I wasn't here.

However, when I arrived home on Saturday night, the house wasn't a total disaster--in fact, it was exciting to come back to a very different dining room/hallway/staircase! It all looks rough right now because they just used the old treads and risers to make "construction" steps. Later they'll be covered with wood treads and white risers, but with lots of work still going on, drywall sheets to be hauled upstairs, etc., there's no sense in tearing up the nice wood. I expect it will look like this for a good long while before we get the finished steps put in, plus handrail, newel post, trim, etc. So in the meantime, here are the "before and now" pictures...



Before: Standing in the dining room and looking into the hallway. The doorway into the kitchen is on the left; the open door you see in the hall is the bathroom. Our bedroom is just to the right of the bathroom door, out of sight in this view. The door to the steps is in the hallway, just around the corner (across from the bathroom).



Now: What a difference! The walls are gone, the support beam is in, and the stairs have been moved about two feet toward the dining room so that the first step is flush with the wall. Obviously a little plaster-patching needs to be done :)



Before: The view from our bedroom. Here you can see how the stairs are closed off by a door; you walk in and turn on a small landing before heading up the steps.



Now: No more door, no more landing, no more wall!

4 comments:

The Chinlund Family said...

Home projects are so fun to watch!!! They never seem to come at a convenient time (at least for us they didn't), but you'll be so glad you did it now as opposed to later, I can only imagine having a newborn with all the construction going on!

The Bontragers said...

Wow Amy, what a huge difference that made! You guys sure are good at seeing the "after" picture. Love the colors by the way.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how I missed this post, but I did! Wow! It looks amazing! You guys are really increasing the value of your home :)

I can't get over what a fabulous job they did on the stairs. You're one lucky lady to have those guys in your life.

Anonymous said...

It is looking good. I can't wait to see the finished product. You are very blessed to have the handyman to do the work. This kinda stuff gets expensive real quick when you have to pay labor too!