Baby Gate on Stairs

Picked up a baby gate for the top of the stairs. I wanted one that could open in either direction. Hopefully it breaks-in a little bit, because it's still pretty stiff to unlatch.

The screws that came with this thing were absolute crap. I stripped or broke six of them before giving up and digging into my stash of hardware for screws that would actually work.

Upstairs Hallway Ceiling

In preparation for the house appraiser, I got the smoke alarm back on the ceiling yesterday. Took me until this afternoon to find the "before" picture, though:

Before:

Now:

As best I can tell, the sellers had a (dead) carbon monoxide detector, a (way-past warranty) smoke alarm, some sort of siren and a motion detector on this ceiling when we bought the house. Now we have a Nest Protect.

Might have to re-take that "after" photo... Fixed!

Upstairs Hallway Lights

So these two lights have been causing problems.

Initially, the two Cree bulbs I had in there made too much buzzing noise on the dimmer switch - enough that Brianna told me flat-out I had to do something about it.

I switched them with two other Cree bulbs, and had no problems - they were perfectly silent. I shrugged and figured the first pair of bulbs must have been from the lot of bulbs I bought from a sketchy eBay seller, and the new ones must have been from Home Depot. But, after a few weeks, the new pair started to flicker. THAT was really annoying.

Now I'm trying out a pair of Philips Slimstyle LEDs in these light fixtures (I've wanted to try out some of these for a while)

But these bulbs are some how illuminating even when the switch is OFF! Sometimes it's one bulb, and sometimes the other. It seems to happen shortly after the switch is turned off. At this point I suspect there is something wrong with the switch, but the fact that only one or the other bulb will do this illuminating-without-power trick has me flummoxed. Any ideas?

Painting

I put the last coat of color on the upstairs hallway.

That means that the upstairs is completely painted except for the two walls and ceiling that extend into the great room. Well, except for the linen closet. If Brianna wants the linen closet painted, she knows where the paint is :-P

I also finished the main floor bathroom:

I decided it was too late at night and I was too tired to tackle re-assembling the toilet. Once the countertop has been caulked, I'll reinstall the mirror. And then this bathroom will be finished and useable!

Finally Done with that Green Wall

Put up the last coat of green paint on the upstairs hallway, and installed a new air-intake grill and new lights (a full month after they were delivered).

I'll try to remember to get a photo in daylight - that upstairs lamp is dimmed to it's lowest setting, and it's still washing out my phone's camera. There. Looks much better in daylight.

Getting this wall done has been item 4 or 5 on my priority list for weeks now, but every time I finished items 1, 2 and 3 something would jump ahead of this wall to take priority. I'm glad I could finally finish it.

We also did a fair amount of general clean up, and re-hung all the doors, because Eva, our little rat terrier, has been making a renewed habit of "marking" any unoccupied rooms she can access. Despite having a pet door.

...Maybe she should just be an outdoor dog, going forward?

More Green!

Got the first coat of green up on the upstairs hallway Saturday morning!

Priming Drywall and Painting Trim

Got a late start this evening, but still managed to put up the second coat of primer in the upstairs hallway and the first coat of primer on the triangular section of wall below the staircase.

While I was doing that, Brianna worked on peeling tape away from trim in the family room and kitchen.

After dinner I put a third coat of trim color around the frames to the laundry room and basement - I'm kinda regretting not priming those when I primed the rest of the room, but at the time I didn't want to take the doors down to properly get the trim. 

Once the paint supplies were cleaned up, I sliced and peeled the tape Brianna hadn't gotten to. At this point, the only tape left in the room is around the two door frames I painted tonight. We still need to clean up little scrapes of tape that didn't peel properly, and vacuum. And then, hopefully some point this weekend, we can move furniture back in and use these rooms again!

Priming Upstairs Hallway

Brianna and I taped off the trim we painted yesterday, and I primed the three one-story walls in the upstairs hallway, and the little strip between floors. And that pretty much used up the last of the primer - I have officially gone through EIGHTEEN gallons of primer since we bought the house.

Painting Trim

I moved some stuff around last night, and got the trim painted in the upstairs hallway. I also got some of the kitchen trim done, but realized I really need to vacuum the corners before I paint the rest of the trim.

This was supposed to be a picture of the trim, but Eva decided to photobomb.

New Lights for Upstairs Hallway

Found these lights on woot.com a week ago, and thought they would work well in the upstairs hallway. It's not painted yet, so these will have to wait a bit.