More Progress

The light is not good in this pic but the tile backsplash is in place and in person it looks great.  I kept it simple and went with a high gloss, all white subway tile.  In a chaotic kitchen like this, simple and clean lines where you can have them is a necessity.

Part of the center island has been painted.  I chose Farrow and Ball 'drop cloth' as the color for all of my cabinets.

The steel beam is shining and the painter's refinished the counter shelf on my French pine cabinet. That was such a nice surprise to see.  It was a mess with water rings and scratches so now I can start aging it all over again.

I told my carpenter to go crazy and build as many shelves as he could fit in my boiler room.

I'm sure I will fill all of them. Now that there is no longer a basement, I need places to store things like buckets and cleaning supplies.

The banister and handrail are painted. These stairs will be done at the very end because the workers use them all day. These are called the Suki stairs. They are named after my great niece who fell down them when they were old and rickety. I still haven't gotten over it.  I thought the least I could do was name the new stairs after her.

The other staircases are almost ready for carpet. There are 4 of them in this house and they are all narrow and steep.  The house is built into the side of a mountain so you are literally climbing the mountain as you walk up each set of stairs.

For the first time ever, I have steps into my basement.  This used to be a killer first step!

When I first bought this place, it was a duplex. The horizontal board marks where the original wall was that separated the two units. The sink in the one unit sat right here and apparently leaked for many many years.  My very excellent floor re-finishers did everything they could to get the stains out but they were too deep.  I could have pulled it all up and replaced it but that would have slowed this project down. Plus, I have a hand-hooked rug that I use in this area so I am living with it as is.
 

The rest of the floor has turned out wonderfully.

Next week after the rest of the floor is sealed and dry, furniture will go back in place. You can see furniture behind that plastic curtain.  This room had to be done one side at a time and we had to move everything from side to side as the work progressed.

The basement has quite a way to go but I am more than ready to get the rest of the house back in order.