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Hallway Prep Work

As announced last Thursday, back here in this post, it’s Pinterest Challenge time!  Who’s excited?  I’m excited!  And as I announced last week, I was planning on conquering our staircase with a little old baluster painting/installation project (details will be revealed tomorrow so stay tuned).  But before we could get to work on the balusters, there was ALOT of prep work to tackle on the staircase.

The trim and risers needed to be painted.  Yeah, and the hallway trim needed painting too.

The hallway trim, staircase trim, and staircase risers all needed to be primed and painted.  And sadly, the three coats of paint I had slathered onto the staircase treads was already starting to wear off so those needed some touch ups too.

So I buckled down, rolled up the sleeves, and primed/painted ALL the trim, ALL the risers, repainted the treads and topped the treads off with four coats of poly.  I’ve been a busy girl!  Goose helped.  That’s if you consider licking my face while I painted as “help”.  But in the end, I damn proud of the results!

All of a sudden, the bead board risers that we installed way back here (in November…sheesh) pop and look cottage-classy.  And finished.  Yes, painting the risers and trim made the staircase feel finished.  Who knew?!  Oh, and while we were touching up paint we took a little time to put up some art and add a switch plate cover to the hall light switch.  Oh joyous days!  It’s been YEARS (I’m not kidding here) since we’ve had a switch plate cover in the hall!

And there goes Goose photo bombing another blog picture.  At least he’s cute!  It helps that I got his good side.  Oh and cute story about the beachy art hanging in the hall.  That’s my first piece of big girl art from back during my college days.  I took the pictures for a photography class using my dad’s old 35mm camera and even developed the photos myself.  They’re far from perfect but I love that I developed the pics from negatives myself.  But back to the hall, here’s the view of the hallway from the dining room.

And a more vertical pic of the hall where you can see Marilyn peeking through from her perch above the staircase (she was my last Pinterest Challenge project that you can read about back here).

I need to take a moment to talk about the stair treads.  Originally, we had primed the crap out of them (the old carpet glue kept peeking through), then painted them with floor paint 3 coats strong.  Apparently that wasn’t enough.  The treads quickly wore out.  Colby and I are both creatures of habit and take the same path up the stairs each time, thus wearing them out in only certain high traffic spots (we’re made for each other, we both lead off with the same foot…if that’s not love, I don’t know what is).  In preparation for the baluster installation I re-did the treads.  I used two coats of floor paint and then covered that with four, yes FOUR, coats of high traffic floor poly.  The treads are just a wee bit slippery right now, Goose may have gone crashing a few times, but they’re quickly getting scuffed up but the finish is still impeccable.

Here’s the view of the staircase and the hallway from out on the front porch.

Meow!  That’s one hot looking staircase!  So to illustrate one of the reasons we really need to add those balusters to the staircase, enter Goose.

Goose likes to take shortcuts up the stairs, and occasionally down.  He cuts through the hall and up the stairs right where balusters should be.  It’s just a matter of time, especially now with slightly slick stair treads, until he takes a major digger.  We’re just trying to protect our dog child.

So this concludes the prep work for our baluster installation process.  Painting the trim and finishing up the treads/risers was definitely one of those nagging projects of 2012 that we’re vowing to tackle.  Next project, balusters.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s baluster post.  We’ve got them all up and installed and they are gorgeous!  We’re talking Gisele Bundchen gorgeous.  Actually, it’s more like Gisele Bundchen in a house full of history nerds arguing about what part of the constitution is most awesome.  Not true.  Our house is shaping up and is getting less and less awkward every day.

Pssst…I can’t wait for Pinterest Challenge reveal day tomorrow!  It’s like Christmas Eve as a child!  I’m so excited to show off our baluster project.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been dreaming about them for about a year now and they’re finally a reality and they turned out so much better than I expected!  Can you guys relate?  Do you ever get a little too excited about house projects?  Is that normal?  Just me?  Okay…I’m going to bed now.  Good night y’all!

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Angie's Roost Campbell Family in front of home in 2021

Hi there! We're the Campbells. We traded in Maine city living for the country life in Vermont. You'll find us here fixing up a circa 1781 historic home, growing our own food, and filling this home with the memories and things that matter. Read more about us...

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