Stairway to Heavenly

My wife and I are fortunate to live in an early 20^th century home, which has a lot of great architectural details. We have beautiful molding in the dining room and interesting plaster work in other rooms, but our staircase was boring. Bland. Bare.

So, bring on the molding.

All it took was a little patience and an angle finder to create this wall. It’s simply the work of creating the illusion of a paneled wall that appears to look like one elaborate wall treatment.

The key: Getting a balanced design, and paying special attention to how you space out the boxes and molding. Keep it simple and use the angle finder for the miters. Finish it off with wood filler or spackling to get a more precise finish with the miters. And then let your wife do the painting. 

Making Changes Down Under

The previous owners of our house thought it was a good idea to carpet the basement. We didn’t think so, so we found a great product that bends to the uneven floor. It’s vinyl, so it’s easy to clean, doesn’t get mildew and it looks like real hardwood from far.

This Armstrong vinyl flooring is great for the basement

Finished, it resembles hardwood

The beginning of the shelving unit I built

We also needed storage for all our books (my wife has been working on a Ph.D., so she’s amassed a large number of books over the years). I built these bookshelves to store all our books.

And then we added the books.

Plantation blinds

It's amazing how switching out your old wood blinds for more sleek plantation shutters can make a difference on your windows and the room.

You don't need to spend countless dollars on custom-made ones. We ordered these online from a home improvement store and had do a few small adjustments. The product came with spacers for the width that gives you some room to work with, about four inches. Then you can cut the height to fit. 

Here is the before and after:

How It Began

You know that feeling you get when you’re thisclose to finishing something? The feeling when you’re ready to power down –  in this case, power down the power tools – and step back and savor a job well done? Yeah, that was exactly what I was getting ready to do one day in August 2003. I had just broken out all of the tile in my 1940s-style bathroom. The room was covered in dust. I was covered in dust. There was wire mesh bulging from the walls. The last of the broken tiles strewn in boxes and ready to go into the Dumpster.

And then the power went out.

August 14, 2003. Power was out across much of the Midwest in arguably the most memorable power outage in our lifetime. So there I stood in my bathroom, surrounded by mounds of broken tile and sweating – both from all of the work and the fact that the AC also was out.

Sure, looking back, it was a job well done. But, sadly, it was a job that I had to be finished --  picked up again a few days later when we regained power.

But in the end, I loved  the hard work and the bathroom itself.  And I became more passionate about home improvement. Several other projects followed in that house…until, of course, we moved. And then we started the DIY projects all over again.

Call me a Weekend Warrior, or call me crazy. I’m Kevin Martin, and these are my stories. 

The finished bathroom in our first house