More work, less blogging!

We're a bit delayed in posting, but we got a ton of work done on the hallway over the last week. And you're not the boss of me, anyways :) We had a couple days off PLUS an unexpected weekend with no plans, so we had nice long chunks of time to finish the plaster, prep all the trim, paint, stain, and oil - and voila - we are almost done - yes DONE - with the hallway. We have some trim to create and we're literally finished with it. So - here's the update - with before & after photos.

Let's see - where to begin - there are 2 major sections, the stairway (part of the living room) and the upstairs hall. The project turned out to be bigger than we perhaps thought (a LOT of wall area!), but it was so incredibly inexpensive compared to that pesky kitchen. I think we probably only spent like $100, just on paint and some supplies like rags & gloves. Now that we have an arsenal of tools & supplies, things just keep getting cheaper & cheaper. Thank goodness!

So, stairway. Here's the before, when we were thinking of buying the house (what did we see in it, again? Sometimes I can't believe we saw through the vinyl and green brain rug. Also, isn't it a tripping hazard to put a chair in front of the stairs?)

Here's how it sat for about 2-1/2 years, between the living room and now.

We didn't entirely realize how much it was detracting from the living room until 2 days ago, when it looked like this (note open drawer with take out menus, obviously it was a long day & required food delivery!):

Major changes happened at the top of the stairs, where the door to an old closet used to be. The closet is now our shower, and the door is now downstairs, the door to our half bath.

So, just wall now - but a looker nonetheless.

And going upstairs, this was a huge difference. Before, evil wallpaper and green brain carpet:

The hallway is so bright now, and clean! The poor upstairs part has been used a staging area for the bathroom, tile storage and cutting, ripped apart for wiring, and home base for insulation. Thus, it was in pretty rough shape with an array of patches and problems:

Time to bring it back to a nice, open space, like this:

And that's all for this week - more next week, when we take a stab at some of those last details...