OK, glad that you posted that the old wood floor is going, because I couldn't understand the dark wood threads with the pickled floor. LOL

I think the stairs look great! Sorry about the tape problem, but you really should have added the poly first, so I think you will need to carefully re-stain those areas.

Your laundry room tile looks wonderful and I would leave the walls as is. Green may be too dark for the size of the room.

How about just buying a new panelled door to match your other door?

Oh, I LOVE the wine rack... what a great design!

newhomebuilder - thank you for your feedback! I am just going to try and dab a little stain on the spots and then poly the rest of the treads. Will it be okay to tape once the treads have the poly on them? Or will the tape pull that off too? I never imagined what a multi-step process this would be! LOL!

You are doing a great job on the stairs. What a nice effect that will have when it is all done. I will be eager to see the new flooring as well, as the Novalis intrigues me.

I would leave the laundry room in the current color - it looks very pretty with the floors, and feels fresh. As for the plain door, what about a couple of cute posters framed and hung there? Or, if that is the exit door to the garage, what about a framed door mirror for last minute 'beauty checks' before leaving the house?

The rack your DH is building is lovely. I would suggest checking with your wine retailer, tho. I have read that it is not recommended that you store wine over the fridge, as the heat that the fridge produces from the compressor is not good for the wine. Of course, if the bottles only stay up there a very short time, perhaps it is okay.

The poly should be very dry...a few days worth before trying again. Instead of tape, what about using a straight edge?

I don't know about heat coming off a refrigerator and wine, but I just felt around my closed in fridge, and I couldn't feel any heat at all. Perhaps newer appliances permit less heat than the older units.

citymomof3 seems to have plenty of air flow space around her fridge, so I don't think it will be a problem.

Thank again guys! Dh suggested the straight edge as well, so I will have to give that a go. I never thought about the heat from the fridge, but there doesn't seem to be much coming off the back. Hopefully it will be fine. We do go through wine pretty quickly too! LOL.

If you can, don't tape at all. You REALLY have to let the product dry before taping or you do risk this type of damaage.

In any case, don't use blue tape - green tape is less destructive to finishes... after it's dry and cured.

I think your stairs are looking great! I've been wanting to do the same thing but I wanted to ask you what you do at the top of the stairs? What kind of flooring do you have at the top? I have carpet that runs up the stairs, through a hallways and into all the rooms. I can't rip out the stairs but leave the landing/hallway right?
I think my DH would have a heart attack if I ripped the carpet out.

LOL, mlraff! My dh about had one too. I was so SICK of looking at the dingy carpet that one day I just ripped up a little at the bottom. Just so I could get an idea of what was underneath. Basically, my carpet never had a chance to look clean. The builders left so much dirt and debris and just carpeted right over it. So everytime I was shampooing, the dirt was pushing right up through the pad and carpet.

So, I just kept ripping! Once I showed him the pictures of what I wanted to do he was ok. We all have horrid allergies, so getting rid of the carpet was what we'd been wanting to do since we moved in here. We are ripping the carpet out all over the house, upstairs included. We're putting the Novalis in everywhere. Might be an issue for resale, but honestly I'm not worried at this point. I think it looks gorgeous from what I have seen/read, it's exactly what I want and it's affordable.

If I were you, could you stop at the top riser so that the carpet on the top stair tread still curved over the top? Then the rest of the way down would be wood. Not sure how it would look, but that's probably what I would do.

There is a new tape out called Frog tape. It is green, but don't confuse it with the other green tape. It is excellent, excellent, excellent!!! What makes this tape different is that it actually has a substance on the underside of the tape that when liquid (paint) hits it, it bonds to it and forms a water-tight seal.

We recently had new floors put down in our Master bed/bath, and when it came to painting the baseboards, I was really concerned about leaving those little telltale signs behind on our new floor. I have always gotten little bleeding spots previously when painting trim, no matter how careful I've been when taping. I'll forewarn you, the frog tape is expensive, but it is so great, I did not get ONE bleed-thru on my new floor!!!! Just a beautiful razor sharp edge. Go to the paint forum and do a search on frog tape -you'll read some other testimonials there. By the way, fantastic job on the stairs!!!

Wow - you are a busy bee!! Everything you are doing looks so nice.
Door in LR - you could get those little 1" trim pieces and create a paneled door - simliar to your 6 panel doors. You could add wallpaper or stencil something in the "boxes" you create.

Yes, I would add crown to your exsisting cabs. Dh did a great job on the wine rack. I have heard that about the ref putting off heat =not good for wine....but if your like me - we drink it & buy stuff not worth aging!! If you are planning on letting it age - it should be in a cellar/basement.

And most importantly - what a cute yellow lab:) They always have to be where the action is!!

Smiles:)

johnatemp - yes, she is my furry little buddy. Well, not so little! She is the best dog. Her name is Piper and she is turning 9 years old next month!! Doesn't she look great still?? I tell her she is beautiful daily. :) She was being shy in the pic I guess...

Here's a better one!

I second the Frog tape. I just used it in my kitchen -- I don't usually tape, but I didn't want to chance getting any paint on my cabinets, so I taped those off. It worked perfectly! You do still want to press the tape down really well, but I got MUCH better results than any time I've used blue tape.

Love the tile in your LR. I do like the current paint color there, it looks fresh and cheery.

Yay, I will def look for the frog tape. Is it sold at hardware stores like Ace or True Value?? Thanks so much for all of your great suggestions!!