Watching other people get us to the halfway mark on the bannister

I broke down and called the guy who refinished our floors to come and knock out the bannister refinishing project for me. It’s been on my to-do list for probably more than a year…checking….yep, started in April 2011. Wow.

This was one of the things we absolutely had to do before the baby gets here because of the amount of dust it generates and the likelihood of lead paint. I just wasn’t going to have time between all the other things I needed to do. If there was something to outsource, it was going to be thing that was going to leave my fingertips, hands, wrists and forearms numb after stripping and sanding for what would probably be at least 40 hours.

That’s not far off after seeing what it took today. My floor guy and three of his bros spent the better part of 8 hours to get it almost finished today. 8 x 4 = 32 for them, probably at least 40 for me. But in one day, they got the rest of it stripped down, sanded, and stained where it’s not being painted. (The spindles are cheap pine, and I’m going to repaint those, but they did strip them all the same.)

It was a big loud angry messy day in the entryway, but things are looking good. Big reveal coming later this week — they should come back and finish the 2 coats of poly tomorrow.

It’s just gonna be a blow to my pride that I wasn’t able to finish this project myself, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get over it.

Actually, sitting here, looking at it almost finished a few feet away as I type here with fingers that work, I think I already am.