The Sunroom, East wall

This weekend we transformed my house into an art gallery. All the furniture was removed from the living room, and all the crap laying around my first floor was relegated to the basement. It’s too late tonight to go into detail, but I’ll just say thank you to everyone who came over. It was fantastic. For my part, the paintings made my house look amazing – and gave me a glimpse of what it can become. Enough of the rhetoric – here a few pics of the house transformed. More to come.

East wall , looking forward, and Katie

East wall, looking North

The artists. Kelly Queener (left), Katie Claiborne (right)

As with everything else in my life, my documentation of the remodeling project is a bit behind. A few months ago, I set about to restore the main staircase. The project began innocently enough – I was on the phone and I absently began chipping paint off the trim. I found beautiful, dark stained oak underneath the white paint.

For the next few weeks, I chipped away at the paint – I pulled this and that piece of trim off – I even sat with the heat gun from time to time. But I hadn’t really committed to the idea of restoring the entire staircase. With so much else to do around the house, it seemed like unnecessary complexity.

I walked past that staircase a thousand times. The loose paint was becoming scarce, yet the woodwork still looked like shit. So in a fit motivation and obsession, I pulled out the pry bar and the rubber mallet. My friend, Paul, asked me “why the hell did you do all that?” Well, my answer is “I’m a bit crazy, and I bought an old house – why would I want it to look like a Home Depot rehab?” He answered , “yeah, you gotta do it, don’t cha’?”

Yep. I sure do. Here’s a video documenting the restoration and reassembly of the staircase. There are definitely some major omissions is the video (“and then some magic happens” moments). If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line here or at my blip.tv site, homedespairs.blip.tv.