Designasaurus Rex: Heading towards the Home Stretch

I've been the owner of the church for a little more than 10 months now and while I think that ultimately she will always be a work in progress, I really do feel as if I'm heading toward the final lap. But it's a tough lap... the deck. The star of the show. I'm constantly trying to get a handle on dollars, materials, labor and building codes. Let's just say it's not going to happen one, two, three. And that's okay because from the beginning I was clear to all the people who are working with me that while I was limited in my monetary resources, I had all the time in the world. So it may take a little more time... I've learned that things don't have to be now or never, all or nothing.
David and I have this running joke about the church. It photographs a LOT better than it really is. I mean, it's not exactly true, it does look beautiful in real life, but the photos make it look even better. My first project two weeks ago was to clean up the door that I bought for 20 bucks at the flea market in Ravena.

So I used some goo-gone, sanded and oiled and left the door standing by the bathroom so David could work with it and the barn door hardware that I bought from the good folks at Rustica Hardware in Salt Lake City. When I came up last week, this is what I saw:

See what I mean? It does look pretty amazing.
The other thing I got from Rustica Hardware were the cabinet pulls for my kitchen cabinets. David installed them last week and leveled all the cabinets and drawers. I really love the way they look and was glad to use something other than the ubiquitous bar pulls that I have in my city apartment.

Now that there are finally pulls on the drawers, I guess I'll have to start putting stuff into them. I guess I'll have get the stuff first. It will be nice when I cook and eat my meals there!
My ongoing project was to scrape the front porch railing. I used TWO cans of paint stripper over two weekends and here was about a quarter of what I scraped off the wood:

to get to this:

And the front landing was already in place and waiting for the porch rail to be installed. David has a bunch of gluing and nailing before he can work with it since it's super rickety and probably a hundred years old.

Another huge, great thing happened last week. Richard, who helped us cut up the street to bring in the natural gas line, came back and moved some earth, brought some boulders and did some awesome landscaping.

He also ripped up the sidewalk, put down gravel and eventually, I'll have him pour a concrete sidewalk since the bluestone was a trip to the emergency room waiting to happen. The earth had done a lot of heaving over the winter and the stones were completely uneven and wobbly. And since each homeowner is responsible for their own sidewalk, I knew I'd have to address it.
We did, of course, save the large slabs of blue stone. I am hoping to use it for a patio out back by the deck but the budget is a factor. Fingers crossed.

Another project that I wanted to complete was the sleeping alcove for guests. I had already laid the floor and painted the half walls but I had an idea that I wanted to try. So I asked David to leave me the two pieces of trim for the front of the stairs.

I painted them, stained the edges and added a little graphic interest. It became this:

It's not exactly the lap of luxury but I hope it will do. I'll put a nice low bed there and some reading lamps and David will trim out the closet in front of the alcove and guests will have a little space for their things and to call their own while they are visiting.
David also split the wood that was still lying around from the summer when LB Tree Service cut down the three maples that were growing too close to the south side of the house. I brought them in and put them in the newly finished wood cubby:

I painted the exterior of the front door. Later that day I saw my neighbor Wayne who lives across the street and has to stare at that door. I knew it was an unconventional color and I was slightly worried that he would hate it. But he didn't, he said he thought it was happy and fun. I hope that those adjectives will describe a lot of things about my residence!

Finally, here's a photo I took from the north side of the house which is on New Street. It really shows you the lay of the land and how tricky it is to work on a postage stamp sized plot at the top of a steep hill.