Feb 28, 2016

Stair Parts for Dummies

If we're going to talk stairs, there are a few things you need to know. Here is your 37 second lesson on Basic Stair Part Terminology.

(If you are asking yourself at this point, "Then What in blue blazes is a Banister?" - cuz maybe you talk to yourself like that, who knows - A banister is the sum of all the things: A handrail combined with the balusters makes a banister. Ok? Ok.)

Now you know everything you need to know. It is important for you to know this, otherwise the entire time you are reading this post you will be saying "What are you talking about again?" Which is exactly what Richard says everytime I want to talk Stair Parts with him.

This is how my stairs look right now.

Those 2 posts you see are the Newel Posts. They are installed and secure. That square block just hanging out there on the wall to the left is the rosette. The handrail will end there.

Newel Posts are good. But you can see that it is still 100% possible for people to fall right off of the stairs, or right over the edge of the landing at any time. As such, we can not yet say that these stairs are "DONE" in the conventional sense. I don't like to knit pick, but to really feel done I'd say we still need a handrail and balusters.

We got all our stair parts from a local place, and Lani the Builder took all the balusters to a shop somewhere to have them painted. I don't know why, but this took a couple of weeks. But they finally came back. Hooray! Here they are! In a stack! By a Dinosaur!

But when he went to install them, he realized that half of them were too short. If you look again at the stair parts picture you can see that each step needs two lengths of balusters, but all of our were the same length.

I don't know whose fault it is, but the question is somewhat pointless. What matters is that we don't have what we need, and we need to get what we need. It was decided that Lani will make us some new balusters, get them painted, and then bring them here and install them.

Maybe by the end of THIS week I won't have to hold my breath every time the kids walk up and down the stairs?

So now you know. I challenge you to take this new stair knowledge and go show it off at home shows or at Parent Teacher Conference. Everyone is sure to be impressed!

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Feb 24, 2016

PROJECT DARKSTONE: Day 387

MY LIFE RIGHT NOW

We are living in our house again. After exactly a year, we moved back in to our house and are living here once again. The Power is On. The Water is On. Most of the light fixtures have been installed. And it is wonderful. Well, as wonderful as drowning in one's own clutter can be. I want to show you pictures of the beauty and majesty of our new house, but all I have are the pictures I took about an hour ago. They will have to do.

This is the entryway. See how entryway like it is? Stuff continues to enter into it and never leave, like empty boxes and Colin's toys

Here is the Room to the left. I tell myself that as soon as the stairs are done then the tools can get cleaned out of here and I can pull up the rest of the paper and cardboard on the floor, and then fill this room up with stuff, but I don't know if it will really happen.

To our right we have whatever this room is. It might look messy, but getting it to look this clean took a huge amount of effort. When people helped us move in all of those couch parts got put in the room backwards, so I had to clean the room completely out to be able to turn the couch around the right way. Then we made a huge pile of stuff we want to sell at a yard sale, so the cleanness really only lasted about a day.

After traveling down the hall we come to the bathroom off to our right. The shower and toilet are fully functional. The sink is nonexistent.

Next we get to the Kitchen/Great Room. Do people really call rooms like this Great Rooms? Does anyone have as hard of a time naming their rooms as we do?

The coffee table in this picture is covered with paper bowls full of parts needed for electrical work. I got tired of digging through a box looking for the right size screw, or for wire nuts. So i separated everything into paper bowls and I suspect they are going to stay there on that coffee table for two more weeks at least.

Here is my kitchen. I don't know when my cabinets are going to be installed, so don't ask. Right now we are using plastic tables Demi lent to us, along with several countertop appliances lent to us by Susanne, and by Boydell and Jen.

Now lets run back to the front of the house and head upstairs. The stairs are new! And so dirty!

The biggest feat so far is that we managed to clean out this bedroom which was filled TO THE ROOF with stuff. And now, for the first time in 5 1/2 years, Harrison and Colin have their own rooms. They don't have bed frames, but they have privacy now, and you can't put a price on that.

Harrison is pretty excited about the new sleeping arrangements. He got to arrange the furniture exactly how he wanted it. He also said he doesn't want me to paint his walls. He says just white is fine with him.

Nestled between the boys' bedrooms lies the laundry room. No shelving yet, so everything gets to sit on top of the washer. I hope the washer feels special.

A cool feature of the laundry room is the light switch. It is inside the door frame. When the door is opened, the light turns on. So Awesome.

If you turn around so the laundry room is behind you you will be looking down this hall. I have been trying to clean it up for a month. But every time I do more stuff just gets put into it. Usually I am the one putting stuff there, so it is super annoying.

Last of all we have the master bedroom. Looking resplendent, of course. When we cleaned out Colin's bedroom most of the stuff that didn't have a home got put in our room. I spent most of today trying to find somewhere to put everything that was in here, so you'll have to trust me when I tell you this room looks WAY BETTER.

Even though our house is bigger, we are seriously lacking in cupboards and shelves. And when you don't have cupboards and shelves everything has to go on the floor. There isn't a whole lot of space to LIVE in a room once you put all your stuff on the floor.

And the sad part is, we still have a huge shipping container in our front yard full of stuff that we have to fit into this house somehow. Boy. First World Problems, amiright? I don't have room in my big new house for all of my stuff I don't need. Tragic.

Richard just read this post over my shoulder and said, "Are you really going to show them these pictures?" Cuz, MESSY. But now you know. Everything is complete chaos and I honestly don't know when it is going to get better. So, I am fine. How are you?

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Feb 2, 2016

PROJECT DARKSTONE: Day 365

Without any ado whatsoever I would like to announce that we have moved back into our house! And I can say without any reservations that we jumped the gun a little bit. At this point we don't have a kitchen, or electricity, but our neighbor let us run an extension cord to her house so we can turn on the heater and a few a lights. That was very nice of her. The only reason I am even able to write this is that I am back in Fae's basement for the moment. My computer is still here, and I have come to pack up the rest of our stuff and do some cleaning. So I have no time to chat. I will just post some pictures of my house in all of its resplendent glory now that it is full of most of our belongings, There is nothing quite like stuff to make a home feel homey.

We are a little afraid to pull up the paper on the floors.

I didn't paint where the cabinets will go. I am efficient/lazy that way.

Other things to mention.

One Saturday a couple weeks ago we convinced a bunch of our family to come and help us install outlets, light switches and light fixtures. They are nice people.

Lights are a big deal!

And this happened yesterday. The power people came out to inspect and hook up our power, only to tell us that we needed to run another wire. So holes were cut in drywall. Fists were shaken in general frustration.