I worked on the pantry today. It's been a mess lately and I wanted to freshen it up. After taking everything out I painted it white. 

Before (when I bought the house)

After (being picky what put back in pantry)

I love organization

New knobs. No clue why I had brass ones in there. 

I fixed the doors too so they would close which required some fun with the hand planer. 

Painting....always painting...

The hallway upstairs bothered me. There were drywall screws never covered and the walls were a faded yellow. With free time and a ladder I decided to tackle the hallway. I had already done the stairs and painted the trim to brighten it up. I had to use a swiffer to spread the spackle on the ceiling because I am short and have a minor fear of being high up on ladders.

I was good this time and put down plastic to protect the stairs that I had worked so hard on.

The  new wall and ceiling color is called Swiss Coffee made by Valspar. I thought it was pretty and nice contrast to the Ultra White trim. Please don't look at the light. I hoping to do something with that soon. I am not a fan of brass. 

This was after I painted the floor a similar color to what it was originally. I made such a mess painting that I had to paint it again but had planned on freshening up anyways. I love this spot in the house.

Nice green color, perhaps the only original color I've kept in the house.

I am proud of the fact I didn't get paint all over the stairs.

I also spray painted the floor registers to dress them up because they were in rough shape. 

Now the floor registers matched the door hardware. Eventually I will get to the front door to finish this room. I just need to replace the switches and outlets and update the lights and this section of the house will be all done. I love the wood floor in here. Stripping the layers of paint off the floor was worth it. 

I took this handle off the bathroom door upstairs. It took a while boiling it in water with Dawn soap but I did get all the paint off. I spray painted it to match all of the hardware at the house and was able to reattach it to the door.

I finished painting the trim and doors in the hallway upstairs. I still need to do the walls, floor and ceiling at some point. 

Before. The trim was this ugly green color I did not like. I had the paint so thought why not. It took three coats to cover it and I did get paint everywhere. I used tape but it never seems to help me. 

After. :) I think the white brightens up the space. 

I am finally done with the stairs project. After stripping paint and lots of paint and stain work I'm happy to take a break until Spring when I'm sure I'll find something to work on. 

Before and After 

We finally finished the dining room ceiling. It's such a relief to have the room all clean and functional again. Here's some pictures from the project. We wanted to do a wood ceiling but there was a section missing after removing drywall. Good thing about this project was we were able to fix the insulation and make crawl space useable.  

Before removing old insulation 

So turns out mudding a ceiling is different from a wall. We learned a lot and don't want to do this again. Lol

Peter did a good job painting. I did the edge work and cleaned the beams. 

Finally done! 

Before and after. So nice to have room back to normal.  

Today we made progress in the dining room. Cutting pieces of drywall to fit wasn't easy. 

So sometimes projects don't turn out like you want. I thought an exposed wood ceiling would be nice. But I didn't realize the crawl space above the dining room was missing floor boards and my original had to be scrapped. Instead we took out the old insulation and re-insulated in a better way to keep the house warm. We sealed and added a floor to the crawl space. We will be adding drywall back up soon and I learned my lesson. 

The insulation was a pain to clean up. 

We added strapping after I took pictures to hold it in place. 

Floor is up and can actually hold weight.

Painted bathroom to fix plaster wall. Better. Not perfect but better. 

We had to do some work to the bathroom due to getting new washer and dryer. They wouldn't fit with the cabinet on the wall. I'm glad we took it down because we found evidence of a mouse living up there and a hole to the outside. Always something when you make any changes to an old house. 

Before

The wall is plaster. No fun. 

That's a little better. :)

The door Banchi damaged this summer is finally fixed. It took some work but it's fixed now with some new trim and a lot of wood filler. 

Today Peter worked on the bathroom door. Soon it will be all patched up and looking great. We think maybe banchi did us a favor since it may look better than before. 

One of the projects we've started at home is replacing the front steps. They had been crappy stairs that seemed to be thrown together that weren't level. We ripped them off and replaced them with pressure treated wood. The steps are a lot wider now at 6ft and level. Soon we will add railings and in the spring will stain and paint them. I need to let the pressure treated wood dry out before painting. I already love how it looks. We don't need to rush the project because we rarely use the front door. 

Before

I broke the stairs apart myself with a sledgehammer. 

We had to cut out the stringers because we needed six steps. 

Steps all together now!

Before and After. Will post more once we do more to the steps.