The Banister

I must have taken this about a year after we'd moved in.  We still had those red curtains up...yuck!  

Anyway, this is the tale of the wall unit and the banister...

Here's another view: you can just barely see the bare oak banister...

In transition...

And after...

We were so hesitant about staining the staircase because of the permanence it meant.  So glad I did it now.  If the next owners don't like it, they can easily paint over it.  Or replace the spindles.  Easy! 

And now perhaps the biggest of the transformations...

We had the tv mounted on the wall and the corner taken up with bookshelves.  I just love it.  

I managed to clean up the bookshelf upstairs too, as it was looking textbook heavy and not so lovely.  I know what you're thinking: that iron makes a gorgeous focal piece ;)  Hey, it has to go somewhere!

The Cat Flap

Some genius decided to cut a hole in the brick outside our house and insert a cat door.  Seriously.

After a year and a half, I spent some time with the local brick layer and we fixed this problem for once and for all.  Phew.

He also added some caulking around the door so the draft would stay out.  It's like a new house.

THIS was in the wall.  So gross...

After this weekend's sanding and painting...

And finally...it's covered.  The brick layer is supposed to return with new baseboard to finish it off, and the radiator is actually being hung on this wall.  All good things around these parts.

Garden of England

We live in the Garden of England, but somehow, we don't find ourselves outside walking around in it much.  I've been under the weather for a week straight, and didn't have enough energy for a full-on workout, but did have enough for a stroll outside.  Glad I did.

The Walk Home

You know you've arrived in a place you can call home for another little while when the walk home brings a smile to your face.  

It's nice to know...it's nice to talk about.

Hotline Bling

I can't stop with the Drake. 

He has a restaurant in Toronto that I think I need to visit this summer (oh, did you know I'm coming home?!).  It's called Fring's and back in the day, Laura, Jesse, and I used to go to Susur Lee's restaurants during Winterlicious.  Why not a little throwback on this Thursday?

Surely though this isn't to be confused with The Drake.  



Happy Thursday, all!