Completion of the Hallway and stairs.

One year ago today in fact, I posted a blog post about starting the hallway. We have now finally finished it, with a big hiatus due to the extension being built. I will take you back in time a little to remind you on what we were dealing with! 

We had some thick painted on wallpaper that took a lot of effort to remove, along with some very illegal stairs where one false move and you were a crumpled mess at the bottom. We had very old doors, which mostly didn't shut properly and a front door that needed your whole body weight behind it to close.

Once the wallpaper was removed, we took on the task of installing a new set of stairs. We initially wanted oak with a glass panel but quickly realised that this wasn't worth several grand. After doing a few bits and bobs with the extension Dave felt confident that he would be able to tackle this task himself and set about doing lots of research e.g: watching a youtube video. I was understandably a little hesitant at first about him doing this with it being such an integral part of the house. However as usual, he proved himself right. My only condition was that he found someone to help him, as I was not going to be anywhere near the house when it was happening. 

We used a company called StairBox, who offer a flat pack mail order stairs service. Dave had to provide them with the measurements and then they built the stairs. Almost too easy...well that bit anyway! We did have the staircase sitting in our hallway for a week or so, which did take up a bit of room!

As the stairs weren't fixed in to the side wall, they were quite easy to remove. It was actually a little worrying how little fixings there actually were holding everything to together. 

With the help of Dave's friend Ian, getting the stairs in wasn't too bad. The most difficult part was getting the stairs in place, as they were so heavy and big. Once in place, Dave had to make a few adjustments to get them to fit a bit better.

                                                 

Once the stairs were mostly done, we were able to get the plasterers in as the walls were in really bad condition. We left the bannister and spindles off the stairs until everywhere the wall the ran up against was painted. 

The plastering took about 1.5 days and then a week or so to fully dry. This was then my moment to shine, as I started the painting. The deal being that as Dave did the stairs, I would do all the painting. Dave also installed the Bannister and the Spindles as I painted the main wall first, so he could get on with this. We decided on the colour 'Almond White', I know this is a bit boring, however the hallway can get very dark, so we needed something light and airy! 

The painting of the hallway took around a week in total between work and other things! It was difficult reaching the high points, however I taped a brush to a pole which did the job for those bits! The worst part was painting the stairs, as it was a bit fiddly! 

The final step was getting the carpet laid, which we have had done this week. We went for a blue/ beige stripe. 

So there we go - one year later we are finally finished. I forgot to mention that we had our internal doors put in too, along with a new front door. I also made a new Geordie door mat to make Dave feel even more at home. We feel as though we are in a completely different house!