Punch list work

I know I never made a follow-up post on the exterior house painting but it will have to wait a while longer. I completed what I had to get done with the scaffolding so I could return it but that was it. I still have a lot of the back of the house to complete as well as about 3 feet of the bottom on both sides.

The reason I didnt finish is because we wanted to get our new (old) Airstream in usable condition so we could go on a small vacation. Now that we're back it's time to get this house finished already.

I had intended on coming back and removing the second story porch roof and then finish up the painting but I've decided to hold off on that for a few weeks until I have some help. It will go much faster that way. So in the mean time I decided to create a punch list of little things around the house that need to get done and have begun working on that.


I've been concentrating on the front of the house the past few days, mainly the foyer and the study. I finished staining the beadboard in the study but dont have any good pictures yet. I should be putting a coat of poly on it this afternoon.

I have begun work on the mantle in the study also. Most of the mantle is brick but it has a pine top piece. I stripped the 20 layers of paint off of it yesterday:


I will be shellacing it this afternoon. I've decided to find a brick red paint color and paint the brick for a few reasons. One, the paint is very hard to remove but also the brick underneath it is cement so it's gray, not red. I may try to paint the mortar lines gray then paint the brick red and then sponge it to make it look more realistic.

I've also been trying to finish the trim in the foyer. You may remember that the wall between the foyer and study was not original and was crooked so I tore it down and rebuilt it straight, giving the foyer an extra foot.

The old wall covered the edge of the front door frame so I used some of my salvaged trim to replace the missing pieces. This trim came from the upstairs bathroom and is the original trim design for the house so it matches the rest of the foyer:


I know I should have painted it first but I like to do stuff backwards. Besides, the door frame needed a touch-up coat of paint anyways.

By the way, the plywood is over the front door because the glass broke in the door. I'm sure replacing it is going to be costly.

Next I installed the picture rail on the new wall:


I've also installed the upper trim on the baseboards but still have to install the 1/4 round at the bottom of the baseboards. Once I do that and install the trim on the study doorway and paint everything the foyer will be completely done... well except for the broken glass in the front door that is.