The journey of our staircase.

This is probably one of the most boring blog posts I’ve ever written. Okay, maybe not as boring as the fillers but stairs? Who has an entire blog post dedicated to a flight of stairs? :P

Well, remember the state of our stairs before renovation?

The railings were weak from old age and compounded by termite damage, were pretty unsafe to be used. Here are some old pictures to jostle your memory:

BEFORE

# – Kampung style.
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# – Don’t use the railings or this might probably be your last view before falling over and die.

DEMOLITION

When the railings and floorings were finally ripped out, we breathed a sigh of relief.

# – All gone!

DURING

# – Installing the treads. The flooring contractor gave us a little heart attack because they were covering up the risers as well when we had informed them not to. If you looked closely, you can see some nasty glue stain on the riser because we were making them removed all the flooring :P

Well, while writing this post I found myself stumped because I had no idea how to describe the different parts of a staircase. So I did some googling and discovered this very useful illustration:

# – Now you know why I know how to use the words “tread” and “riser” :P

SOURCE

It took us forever to decide on a railing design. We wanted something timeless, easy to clean and sturdy. We finally found something we liked on Google Images and showed it to our contractor.

He actually made some improvements on the design we gave him. For instance, he made the circular base and baluster (refer to illustration above) into a single piece. Some people cover the baluster base with screwed on caps which might get loose in the long run so I’m really thankful that my contractor had thought ahead for us :)

# – Positioning the railings before the painting. Notice the baluster with circular base on the left of the picture?

NOW

And now after a paint job, the railings are finally installed!

# – Our staircase.

# – Our staircase. Again.

The transformation is quite drastic and I’m very, very happy with the final results :)

# – Before and After.

So there, an entire blog post about my stairs. Happy renovating!

This is not my kitchen.

Nope, not even close but that’s what we’re aiming for. Hopefully it’ll work ;)

# – Not our kitchen.

Upstairs are 95% done, only left installation of toilets and bathroom sinks. But am not satisfied with the finishing work so far. Time to crack the whip!! They say the most headache inducing bit of a renovation is making sure that the finishing is flawless. Contractor doesn’t have the eye for detail like an owner does so it’s very important to keep an eagle eye on them no matter how awkward it feels.

Anyway my streamyx is still down but I’m tethering my Garmin Asus A10 so it’s not bad anymore. By the way am blogging from my A10 now. Android is unbelievably awesome! Didn’t like the touch screen so much but with this SlideIT app its even faster than typing on a real keypad! I think it’s a great alternative to SWYPE for those who have no access to it yet.

# – SlideIT ftw.

My blackberry has been relegated to the graveyard of phones temporarily as I just couldn’t tether it. Pretty sure it’s Digi’s blackberry service problem and not my phone since it did work for one whole afternoon last week. Oh well!

That said, kudos to Digi for trying its best to help me (calling me almost everyday to follow up and assist with multiple solutions). I am positive no other telcos would be able to show that level of customer service.

So yeah, my week is getting marginally better. Will continue to have positive thoughts and good will.

i heart junk food.

Help! I can’t stop eating Crispy M&M’s. Yesterday I bought 6 of the blue packets and have so far finished 4 of them. It’s kind of like eating Maltesers but without all the messiness thanks to the candy shells. Gawd, I love them so much.

I’m tempted to empty out the remaining 2 packets but something inside is telling me to get a bloody grip.

Sudden intense craving for Crispy M&M’s aside, I’ve also been drinking nothing but Mountain Dew for the past 2 weeks. It’s really bad, I know but I’m in a phase and it will pass soon (I hope). From just buying one small bottle, I’ve resorted to getting a few big bottles at one time. I’m literally not making ice fast enough to match my Mountain Dew binge. Soon enough I won’t be buying toothpaste fast enough to counter my deteriorating teeth!

Anyway, here’s a sneak peek of our kitchen. Contractor is done tiling the walls and floors and is currently building the countertop. I LOVE my walls, they look like the surface of a golf ball. Hahaha.

Speaking of tiles, we were at MML Gallery last weekend and they have this massive mosaic mural:

Tell me what you think :D