The Stairs are Finished (almost)

Touch up and finishing left to go but the bulk of the work on the stairs is finished. Milk painted poplar, locally salvaged elm, local pine, reproduction forged nails and oil.

Back to work!

Well. I've been pretty slow on the uptake since we moved in. Lots of hanging around, cooking and sitting by the fire but not much work. I managed to get the stair treads and risers on. They are of King's Road Elm and Meadow's Road Pine respectively. I also built a wall of shelving to help combat clutter in the office/toy storage room. It sort of works. Still lots of clutter. Today I started the balusters for the staircase. It's going very slowly but I really like how the milk-painted posts, rail and balusters look with the natural wood of the stairs.

Kitchen Island

The kitchen island has become the natural centre of the kitchen if not the whole house. It's large enough for several people to hang out around while meals are being cooked, gives us lots of prep space and will actually seat four people comfortable once I find or build some stools. The top is about 3 feet by 4 feet 1-3/4 inch thick maple. It's pretty substantial. I knew I would flatten and do the initial preparation for finishing with handplanes but once I got into it I decided I'd finish the whole thing by hand. It was time consuming but very enjoyable. The results are not perfect. The surface has gentle undulations that are quite nice and some tear-out in places too but I'm pretty happy with it.

Shavings after fore-planing:

The tools I used on this job:

My James Krenov smoother:


The finished top after the first coat of oil and wax:

We're in!

We managed to move in over the Christmas break. As a result I got what seemed like nothing done. Nevertheless we are all very happy to be here and the trim will slowly get done and the cabinets will someday be finished. Here are some random settling in shots.

Upstairs Railing

So the upstairs of the house has been a bit of a death trap since the floors went in. We've been a bit worried about the kids up there and have had to discourage from being up there... bit of a bummer. Anyway, I got this done on the weekend so now they're back to free rangin'. We really wanted simple, strong posts and balusters and are really happy with the results. They are finished with Coal Black milk paint and will get a few coats of Tried and True Original Wood Finish after some touch-ups.




Jody's been stripping one of the old pine doors we collected. We're using them throughout the house and there's just no comparison between these and the new prehung "panel" doors that are all over the place these days. Pure junk compared with this beautiful door that is probably close to a century old. There is evidence that the joinery in this door was cut by hand.

Finishing up.

Seems strange to be using the word finishing in relation to this epic project but that's where we are. Progress slows to a crawl in the finish stage but the rewards for each completed little piece are great. We're pretty happy with the concrete countertops. We're ecstatic with the refinished antique sinks and tub. We love the custom shower that Jody's dad worked so hard on.

Recent additions.

Ok. I'm a terrible blogger. Here are some recent photos. Enjoy!