Stairway To Heaven

We are almost to the end of the blog posts on the transformation from the attached garage and mud room into my she shed.

This post has to do with the stairs. The original stairs were quite rugged and worn. They were not spaced correctly for the the riser height or for tread length to correctly fill the span. The top step and the bottom step had huge unexpected drops (and were dangerous).

Steve re-measured, recalculated and made new stringers and built new stairs. The stairs have been in place for a couple weeks but we knew we needed to get railings up to comply with code, as well as to be safe when the little ones were over.

After scribbling a few ideas on paper, we decided we would put not only one railing along the outside of the staircase, but we would also add another railing along the white wall side. Not only is it a bit safer, but it may encourage the grubby handprints of children to stay on the railing instead of being dragged up and down on the white plaster wall! Lol...

We bought some nice heavy duty silver railing mounts and a 12 ft length of unfinished handrail.

I gave the railing a couple good coats of grey oil enamel paint, to match the stair treads. We cut it in half so we would have two 6 foot long pieces. Steve mounted the one on the wall first.  It came out perfect.  Then he worked with mounting the big 4x4 end post, securely attaching it to the stairs.

Then he made up side slats that could make a good sturdily constructed railing.  Getting the angles cut to meet with the walls was a bit tricky, but we figured it out together.

He added a middle slat for little kids hands to grab onto. We informed Whitney and Claire that that middle railing was made "just for them" by Grandpa.

Underneath the stairs is the cutest little Cubby Hole. 

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that when I was a child growing up, we had a cubby hole under our stairs. It was a great place to hide and play. My mom also stored her sewing machine in there. Plus we hung up our snowmobile suits and had a big box of mittens and hats near the entrance. It was larger than this cubby hole, I still have fond memories of crawling in there to hide behind all of the things. Like a secret getaway hideout.

While we were working on the stairs, the dogs thought the Cubby Hole was a cool spot to hang out.

I put an extra doggy bed to put under there and thought it would become their own cute little hangout spot.

But once we moved the comfy porch furniture into the she shed, they gave up the cubby hole and decided that they would prefer to spend their time in comfort on the cushions.

The grandkids, 

on the other hand, 

think it's just the greatest place ever!

We put down an old southwestern saddle blanket and a couple big hunks of comfy sheepskins. Toss in a few pillows and they are all set. We gave the grandkids a couple of flashlights and let them go in there and read books, giggle and play!

Who? Us? 

We need cookies PLEASE! 

Reading Stories 

Even some time on Grandma's Tablets

So the stairs are complete, and they are truly my Stairway To Heaven each time I walk down them into my wonderful She Shed!

~~~~~~~

One of the other projects we did this last month that really wasn't in the she shed, but it did involve the ReStore. So I thought I'd write about it here:


Early in the summer I bought a cute little light fixture for the front porch while we were shopping at the ReStore. I gave it a fresh coat of red paint so it matched the shutters. Grandson Jameson helped to mount it up on the front porch. It was so cute and adorable and I just loved it.

Fast forward 2 months later and we go walking into the ReStore. We've gotten friendly with the lady who is usually there and she said "Look what I have for you!"  There were THREE more light fixtures that matched that original one we bought for the one on the front porch!! These three were larger in size, but they matched the exact same style and make as the first one we bought 2 months before.

Someone donated them at two different times, and we were fortunate to be there both times on the very day they came into the store!

Wow, they were absolutely perfect! We had just been talking about wanting to add some exterior lights to the garage. The garage was newly built last year by the sellers, but they never got around to installing any exterior lights.

We snatched up all three lights and took them home. I gave them all a fresh coat of paint because they were a funny dusty rose mauve color.

TicTacToe  3 in a row! 

Steve wired up the lights so the two front ones would go on simultaneously with a 180 ° motion detector if anyone comes in the front or from either side.

Aww those are just so stinkin cute! 

At the same time, the ReStore also had this decorative vent piece to go up on the gable of the garage. That was faded out hunter green. So again, with my handy little red paint brush, I made that match too.

The third light fixture was put on the side of the garage by the passageway door. In that one we put a screw in motion detector light bulb that would go on any time we opened either door. The detector is built right into the bulb!  So when coming from the garage or from the she shed, it turns on to  automatically illuminate the walkway between the two buildings.

Now the garage has a little more stylish pizzaz that matches the house, and new usable lights that make our yard safer to maneuver after dark.

This is just about it for the She Shed posts...

We are just laying the ceramic tiles in the entryway and are about 2/3 of the way done.  Steve is suffering from a sinus thing today, and I am not quite up to snuff either. So we laid low, watched football and I did some weaving and made some cool snowflakes from dollar store hangers.  Will post more about those tomorrow. Stay tuned! 

Our National Folk Farmhouse Updates

Back at it.

Honestly, we have been so crazy busy I haven't been taking any time to blog. And I really should!

Thank you, to all of my blog readers, for still supporting my blog even though I took this hiatus. By you readers taking the time and reading through my past blog posts, especially the ones on motorhome modifications and house projects, you are clicking on my ads and helping out to support my blog. I just got a monthly check from AdSense again and realized that I had better get back to it and do some more blogging.

We have been really busy... 

and this is the result so far:

from this when we bought it in April:

One of the first exterior changes I wanted to make was to remove the funny plastic lattice that was covering the porch rails and spindles. It was really tacky and although I had plans for the lower wooden lattice, I am not a fan of lattice whatsoever.

This is the plastic lattice I am talking about:

Here is how it looked after removing it. We know the spindle spacing on the railings is incorrect and not up to code. We have added it to our building permit and we are going to take care of the railings at a later date. For now they are grandfathered in as they are. We do have some real original two-by-fours that are actually 2in by 4in that we are going to be able to cut up and replace all of the missing spindles that are also exactly 2in by 2in.

As for the exterior transformation, the process took me a couple weeks. I started with painting the red lattice underneath the porch as fast as I could. I wanted to get it painted before disturbing all of the flowers that started growing in front of it.

I started with a white primer spray that soaked into this old and dried out unstained lattice wood. I could never understand why people let lattice turn gray instead of painting it. To me, any of that pressure treated wood looks funny when left to turn gray and look weathered.

  

Now for the red. I did not want to use a sprayer because of the overspray drifting onto any of the white surfaces. Instead, I patiently set on a bucket --- working section-by-section with a brush --- getting it into all the nooks and crannies of each little piece of lattice.

I had soft Celtic music playing on my little MP3 player and worked my way across the entire 45 ft long veranda and around both corners too.

While I was doing it, all I could think about was that I was giving our Folksy Farmhouse some "love"!

The window boxes were brown but I used this really good Dutch Boy paint called Max Bond Exterior that works on plastic surfaces (Use on properly prepared exterior siding and trim of previously painted or bare vinyl, aluminum, masonry, stucco, wood, galvanized metal, and primed steel.)

We added the window boxes along the porch edge, and the potted plants on the front porch as well as the front porch furniture. I covered my blue and white front porch fabric cushions with red plastic checkered tablecloths for water proofing!  We may have plans to use that porch furniture in another place, so I am not ready to recover them permanently with waterproof fabric. This will "do" for now.

The next major improvement that we have made is that I have scrubbed and painted the front facade of the house, and we added shutters.

The old white wood siding looked awful and grubby and actually even moldy. I sprayed it down with the garden hose, and then I gave it a light misting of Tilex bathroom cleaner. Yep, that's right. Bathroom cleaner! I put a couple bottles worth in a pump up lawn sprayer jug and lightly misted the entire house on the west and north sides.

Within a few minutes all of the mold and dirt disappeared!!  I gave it a light brushing with a soft-bristled brush on an extension handle. We use that for washing our motorhome.

 Then I gave it a spray with the hose 

and all of the dirt just came right off!

What a satisfying project to work on. It was like night and day to see all of the dark gray and black slide off and  leave fresh white siding underneath

Our original plans were someday replacing the wood siding with Smart Siding. But now after doing these two portions of the house that came out amazingly well, I think we will keep what we have.  Best to retain the historic charm of a National Folk Farmhouse with real wood siding.

I let the siding dry for two days and then picked a cool morning to roll on some fresh white paint on the front of the house siding. I worked a little section at a time.  The results were very satisfying to paint something and have it look so much better as you go along. You see your immediate accomplishment as your roller and paintbrush transform the exterior.

The sellers left us brand new shutters for every window. The only problem is they were black. I chose red for our accent color on this house. Up the street there's a white house with black shutters, and down the street there's a white house with black shutters. I repainted these two coats with the red paint.

The sellers also left a 5 gallon bucket of thick gray porch and floor oil enamel paint so I was able to pressure wash and do the porch floor surface --- as well as the side cement of the foundation to spruce that up to look nicer.

The front stairs will be painted too, 

but not until we bring them up to code 

and correct the rise and tread and railings 

with our newly acquired building permit. 

There was a very tall oversized colonial looking front porch light. I really didn't care for the style of it.  The tip of it almost reaches the beadboard ceiling. It didn't look right and was quite large for the space it was occupying.  The red wreath is covering up a funny yellowed outdoor electrical outlet.

I was nosing around at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore the other day. I found this much smaller and more "farmhouse" looking front porch light for only $10. It was a funny mauve/dusty rose color. Out came my red paint and it was soon transformed into an adorable accent light for our front porch.

The grandkids have been coming over a lot and sharing in some of our projects. Here is Jameson helping Grandpa to install the front porch light. He learned Lefty Loosey Righty Tighty. He helped with the bracket part of screwing the light fixture on, but Grandpa did the electrical connections, after turning off the breaker. So Jameson is learning to respect electricity and also that you can recycle and repurpose something to look good.

(and it matches his new hair color)

We will later attach the oversized colonial looking coachlight onto the side of the big garage. It has a motion detector sensor on it which will be nice in that dark portion of the yard. The larger size will look okay on the long tall side of the garage. So nothing is going to waste. Just moving around.

So far, here is what the exterior front of the house looks like. I'm quite pleased that we got it this far along, while working on other projects with Steve on the inside as well.  Most of the painting and cleaning and sprucing up is my doing... because Steve is working on something else I will start blogging about in the next blog.

We really love this front porch now. 

The family comes over and we sit out and visit...

the kids wander up and down the stairs, 

back in the yard and around to the front. 

With 2.5 acres now, they have room to roam. 

I'm very pleased with all of the amazing perennials that are popping up around the house as well. There are flower beds that almost completely encircle the entire house that are chock-full of perennials carefully planted over the years and arranged by the previous owners.

As for the grandkids, they have also been helping me with watering my flowers and hauling around items in the wheelbarrow and the Little Red Wagon to help us out with projects. It is delightful to have them come over and spend time with us.


I think in the next blog series,  I'm going to talk about what we're doing each day .... and also add one project at a time of what we've done since I last posted a blog. That way I can catch it up slowly.

 We have been doing a lot of little jobs and now we are tackling THE BIG ONE!!!

SOOOOO what is the big one?

It's my She Shed!!!

(stay tuned)