Random improvements

I've been too busy and unmotivated to do anything major at the fortress, but I have been smaller projects here and there, like painting, which takes only slightly more effort than laundry, when done correctly.

The key is to have all the right tools, like this mixing attachment that you put on to a power drill. Tools are awesome when they do all the work for you.






Here is the Living room window before. There were some repairs done to it, which is why there is new bare wood there. It looks better after painting.










Here is the living room window after. It looks cleaner, doesn't it? Well, except for that shitty looking radiator.




Here is the kitchen window before.












kitchen window after.





I also got out the heat gun (yes in the summer) and stripped some paint off the stairway railings to re-paint them.



stairs






stairs

This was a lot harder than it looked ("that's what she said!").

New Stairs!

So the hardwood floors upstairs and downstairs looked nice, but the stairs that connected them looked like crap. I thought about refinishing the stairs, but decided on having them done over, which cost a lot more money, but ended up looking nicer, I think.






Before Pic Number 1: this is the transition from upstairs to the stairs.







Here's what the stairs looked liked from downstairs. There's a fine line between "shabby chic" and "silence of the lambs" and these stairs were on the wrong side of the line.









Here's a pic of the stairs in progress. It's missing the part you step on, which makes it not yet a staircase.











Here's what it looked like when the stairs were in, but before it was stained and painted.











I went to a paintstore so they could get the stain to make the pine stairs look like the oak floors downstairs. Preety good match, I think.







Stained, painted and drying













FINISHED!