So, our hallway has been a bit of an eyesore ever since we moved in. It's had a bare bulb as the light fixture for the past ten years or so (still an improvement over the original), the seals were blown on the four crappy little windows at the top of the wall, the popcorn ceiling was a magnet for spider webs, the carpet was nasty, and the Silver Fox has always just hated the white spindles. Oh, and of course, given that we'd never painted it, the walls had a fair amount of mayonnaise smeared over them.
But we were a little wary of trying to do anything ourselves because we knew the job would require scaffolding and, given how long it takes us to do anything, we didn't want to try to maneuver around it for six months or whatever. So we hired someone to do it for us!
Best. Experience. Ever.
The people we hired were absolutely fabulous. Friendly, affordable, communicative, punctual, hard-working, clean, and just all-around awesome. I can't recommend them enough. Absolutely the best contractor we've ever worked with and they did really good work, too! (Seriously, when I say punctual, not only did HE show up exactly when he said he would, everyone he worked with showed up on time, too.)
I have... absolutely no in progress shots. But I do have some before and after!
Before
Here's the stairs from the front hall:
After
And here's the ceiling and railing from upstairs.
Before
After
We're so pleased with it!
Woodworking Bonus!
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that there's no door on the linen closet at the top of the stairs in any of those shots. That was because, as usual for this house, the bifold door that was there had never been painted and needed some attention. Rather than just paint it, though, we figured it was time for me to make one of those bespoke cedar closet door sets for our own house. I'd already made a total of five doors (ten panels) for my neighbor, and she was looking for another set anyway, so I thought I'd kill too birds with one stone and make her another set while I was at it.
It was pretty straightforward, though we decided not to do the glass for the top panels on this one, and it turned out really nice, even if I say so myself.
And the one I made for our neighbor turned out great, too! I installed it right into our downstairs hallway!
Why did I install it in our house if I made it for our neighbor? Good question. It's because your humble blogger is an idiot.
See, I'd already made five sets of doors for her, and all of the panels were one of two standard widths: 11 7/8 or 17 3/4. When she said she needed a set for her bedroom closet and that it was the smaller size, I went ahead and made her a set with 11 7/8 wide panels. Well, it turns out there are THREE standard widths, and both of her remaining closets require 14 7/8 panels.
I suppose this will teach me that I really have to measure first. (This will not, in fact, teach me that I have to measure first.)
Anyway, we're keeping it. And now I have to build another set for the other side of our closet...
