And the stairway is still the project!  We have the lower part all done and the railing installed all the way up the stairs.  Going to take a break from it for the holidays...but hope to still get a little bit more done when we have time.  It creates so much dust!  We spent today trying to clean and get all the sawdust off just about every surface upstairs...what a mess!  Brian also hung the Celtic stained glass in the lower window in the hall.  My Mom gave it to me a few years ago and am so glad to finally get it in place.  Trevor will be here in a few days and hopefully he will not think the stairs look so spooky anymore! Brian also got the trim around the doors finished in the downstairs bathroom, so that room can be crossed off our list as completely done!!!  YEA!

Still working on the stairs!  It is never ending!  We have all of the lower steps, railing & newel post sanded, stained and 2 coats of varathane on. Brian installed the 3 spindles we had made last year.  It makes a big difference.  I have been painting all the little details on the spindles and it is looking great.  Hope to finish the lower section this week!  Besides that, Brian finished making the other bracket to go up by the pocket doors.  He did a great job of making them!

November?  Really?  It has been close to 4 months since I last updated the blog.  Well I guess not a lot has happened.  We had grand kids here most of the summer, so that was fun, but did not let us accomplish much.  Then we went on vacation for 5 weeks.  But we are back to being busy.  Brian has done a lot outside to winterize the house and yard, always a big job.  Inside we are working on the stairway.  Gees what a job.  We have been scraping and sanding for hours and there is still so much to do, but at least we are making a dent.  I painted most of the lower part of the walls a pretty green, and I really like it.  Also painted an accent wall in the entrance hall the same green.  We are determined to get the stairs and hallway done before Christmas.  My cousin Trevor told us that it is spooky in there and feels like a haunted house!!! He is coming to stay for a week over the holidays so we are dedicating all our time and effort into getting it done...

   The time has just flown by recently, I cannot believe it is July already.  We took a few weeks off for a road trip in June, but no more traveling until the fall.  Too much to do!

    The bathroom upstairs is complete except for the floor and some trim, and we will get to that soon.  We had some insulation done and had to take everything out of the attic and it is all stored in the bathroom for now.  We need to build a new floor in the attic so we can put everything back up. In the meantime I have been going thru all the boxes and totes and getting rid of a lot of Holiday stuff we do not need, so there will be much less going back up there.  We also had the outside wall of one of the bedrooms upstairs insulated and also the crawl space under the house.  I have a feeling it will be a lot warmer this winter!  Yea!

   Outside we have been working in the garden and also working to enlarge the firepit area.  We put more gravel there and started putting the bricks around the edge.

  The girls and their families were all down over the 4th of July weekend and helped us do some jobs in the yard.  Jahn got the rest of the bricks in around the firepit.  It sure looks nice.  Adam helped us clean out the woodpile area and later we will get some fill dirt and more gravel in there to finish it off. Hope to make it a new parking area.
   We were also given a hot tub by one of Brian's cousins and the kids helped us move it onto the patio.  Now we need to figure out how to get it plumbed and wired in so we can use it!  Will be nice to have a warm tub to soak in.

   Brian started working on restoring the front door.  We were looking at buying a new to us "old" one, but the cost is way too much so will just see if we can save this one.  So far he got the hardware off and we have cleaned it up, looks better already. We also finished a lot of the interior doors downstairs.  They all required a lot of scraping, sanding and refinishing, but the time spent was well worth it. You can see some of the pictures on the website.  http://www.dahliahouse.com/

     Six years ago this month we moved into Dahlia!  I remember thinking at that time that we would be done with all the projects in a years time.  How naive we were!  Little did we know just how much work this old house needed. So here we are 6 years later still plugging away, I am not sure I would have signed on for this if I knew at the time how long it would take, and maybe that is just as well as we have enjoyed the journey!
      In the recent weeks we have continued to work on the bathroom upstairs, getting trim up around the windows and walls and dealing with water issues.  Had a geyser of a leak in the bathtub plumbing.  Wow, what a mess that could have been!  Brian put little "shoes" around the feet of the tub so it cannot move, so that problem should be solved.
     We also hung the stained glass boat picture in the living room after I stained and sealed the frame.  We have been waiting for a long time to do this and are very pleased with the results. 
    We do a little bit each day on the staircase.  It is an overwhelming job and as long as I just focus on a small area I don't get so frustrated at how long it is taking to do.  Brian has fixed 3 of the spindles that were split, and I have painted them with primer, so as soon as we finish the sanding and staining we can put them back.....
    Still cleaning out boxes.....I think they are multiplying at night!

We are finished repairing the downstairs shower.  Re-sealed the whole floor, so hopefully no more problems with that.
The bathroom upstairs is almost done.  The toilet is in, as is the sink and vanity. We had the electrician come today to help with the wiring and Brian was able to get the fan and the lights working this afternoon.
We found someone in Seaview to make the missing spindles for the stairs.  He did a great job and that is another job checked off the list.  I have painted them with primer, and hope to get them installed soon.
We have cleaned out another 5 or 6 boxes and put stuff away, sure a good feeling to get it all out of storage. Well not ALL, but we have put a big dent in it.

The rain cleared up long enough to get the tree moved, now we will have more room in the garden and not so much shade on the plants.
Discovered a problem with the shower downstairs, some of the grout had come out from between a few tiles, so Brian cleaned out a bunch of the old grout, and replaced two tiles, and we will have to re-grout it before we can use it again...as I have said before it is always something.
The toilet is attached in the new bathroom, but no water lines to it yet, and we got more trim and some of the baseboard down and a curtain rod up. It all adds up to a bathroom that is almost finished.  I did take a bath, and how HEAVENLY was that!

Amazing!  We have a working bathtub in the house, haven't used it yet, but will very soon.  I put the wallpaper border up today with Emily's help.  It looks great. The vanity top is glued down and ready for the sink and the plumbing.
Had to take some time Friday to repair a leak in the water line about 1/3 down the driveway.  Always something!  Em and John were here this weekend to help us move a tree out of the garden, but it has been raining too hard.

All of the laminate is up in the bathroom and it really looks nice.  The bathtub is in place and Brian is working on the plumbing for the bathtub, and getting a top built for the vanity. I finished sanding and staining the back splash for the vanity and it is ready to go. All of the pieces are coming together and we hope to have a finished bathroom by this time next week.! It will be so nice to be able to cross another room off our list, but most of all I can take a bath!!!  I have really missed having a good soak!

Finished laying the floor in the upstairs bathroom and have one piece of laminate up on the wall. I have started sanding the rest of the floor so we can stain it later this week.
Brian finished the trim on the skylight in the downstairs bathroom, it looks so good!
Still unpacking boxes, but at a slower rate, all the cabinets in the living room and dining room are pretty much full, so being selective about what I take out, it must have a place to go.

January continued.......

The living room and dining room floors are done, the trim is installed, the last curtain is up in the living room and we have started unpacking boxes from the "junque" room.  We are finding things that have not been seen since we moved in. All my Belleek is unpacked and most of the good dishes and wine glasses etc.  Very exciting to get to this point! However many more boxes to unpack. We are finding some real treasures and some items I look at and say...What was I thinking when I bought this...?

We put down most of the flooring in the bathroom upstairs, need to get one more box to finish it.

How did it get to be January 2011?  A lot has happened in the past 4 months, so I have some catching up to do.
September:  Went on a road trip so nothing got done here at home.  Came home early October to find that my Mom had fallen again and had to go to a Group Home.  Poor Mom...getting old is not always fun or pain free!
October:  Finished painting the house!  We had one wall left to do and a lot of the trim.  Got that done before the weather turned.  It looks so good!  We have had many compliments, one friend said it looks like a jewel shining in the sun!  We also worked on getting the yard and garden cleaned up for winter, always a big job.  Had to have the pump replaced for the water system.  There is so much iron in our well that it had seized up. More $$$$$
November: Started working on the last bathroom upstairs, got the room cleaned out and all the measuring done.  Bought the flooring too.  Had a few leaks in the hallway and in the front window from a real heavy rain so had to do some more caulking on the outside.  We were still having major issues with the water system, so had to have a new sand filter put in and update the rest of the system.  The corner of the garage with the system in it looks like it could purify water for a whole town!!! Again more $$$$$$
December:  Worked a little on the upstairs bathroom, put up bead board on the entrance wall, got it stained and sealed,  but kind of gave up on projects for the rest of the holidays.  Decorated for Christmas and enjoyed having a lot of company from Thanksgiving thru the New Year.  We did hang curtains in the dining room and living room.  So cozy looking.
January:  Brian went under the house and got the floor fixed.  There were a lot of weak spots, but boy now it is solid.  We laid the new flooring in the living room and dining room.  It took us about 6 days to do, from fixing the floor to getting the last board down.  It looks so nice! What a difference!  I also worked on the dining room table, giving the top a few coats of sealer and cleaning and polishing the rest of it. That is January so far...more to come!  We have been getting about 1 or two calls or e-mails per month from people wanting to book a room.  GOT TO GET THIS OLD HOUSE DONE!!!!