The Home Front

  

The home front has continued to be a busy, project-filled arena.

Since moving the kids, the T.V., couches and toys downstairs we have continued to do all of he tedious projects. You know the ones...caulking (everything and everywhere), painting trim, doors, and fixing dings in the new walls.  Yes we already have dings...what do you expect? We have 4 high energy, full of life children and projects still going on.

Over Christmas break we installed the toilet, finished building the vanity then waited and waited and waited (3 1/2 weeks full of waiting) for our special ordered counter-top to come in. Once the counter top came we installed it and the bathroom fixtures on the tub and sink.  Then we re-installed the tub faucet not once, not twice but three times!!!  And unfortunately we will need to try again, sigh.  But even with a sub-par bathtub faucet we still passed inspection and the kiddos have enjoyed having a bathroom all their own.  We also are still searching for a mirror but honestly I am in no hurry to get one.  The kids are less distracted in there if they don't have their reflection to look at.  Tell me I'm not the only parent who deals with this, right?

Then over New Years we built the home-work station.  Can I just say I am in LOVE!  It is everything I wanted it to be.  Tons of cabinet space for all the stuff kids need to create, explore, or do homework. Everything is in one place.  Every kiddo has their own cubby for their unfinished projects or homework folders. No more searching through 4 different closets to find what someone needs for a project and no more homework piles on my kitchen counter!!!  We ended up using a door and some plexi-glass for the desk top.  It makes it unique and works perfect.

The last three days I have painstakingly painted the doors and trim, finished caulking and added doorknobs to the freshly painted doors.  The kiddos are ecstatic to have doorknobs! I never knew they could be so exciting.  Alas, gone are the days of peeking through the hole to check on the kiddos at bedtime, now I have to sneak in quietly.

So all we have left now are:

1. Shelves and rods in the bedroom closets.
2. Shelves in the family room so I can finally unpack the boxes we packed over 3 years ago
3. Bathroom mirror
4. The stairs.

Ahh, the stairs. I am at a bit of a loss as to what we should do to finish them.  The treads are perfectly beautiful.  The risers on the other hand, are not. When the treads were put in they had to cut and trim sections out with a saws-all which left gashes along the side and gaps along the back. I filled in the gaps with wood putty, twice, sanding in between and making it as smooth as I could.  Then painted a couple just to see how it would look.  It looks - okay. But I can totally see the parts I didn't sand enough or fill enough. To anyone else they might not notice but I do.  So I am sort of avoiding it while I figure out how to fix it.  I am thinking filling the holes and sanding it again to see if that helps. Or I could get some sort of smooth wood, paint it and liquid nail them on. Or maybe some bead-board, liquid nailed them up and caulked around the edges might look cool too.  What do you think? Ideas?