I'm going to have to work on getting some "after" photos up!

The past few months have been a flurry of activity: with help from Kevin and Brad, the trim in the dining room, kitchen, library, and front hallway is up! It's amazing what a difference some trim work makes in making a room look finished. And it also helps my vacuuming time to have baseboards - the dog hair can't hide in the gap between the wood floor and wall! I still have more painting to do in the dining, kitchen and hallway, but it's coming together.

My current project is sanding the spindles on the stairs. Last night I finished most of the rough sanding; next up is going back over everything with a finer grit paper.

One exciting update is my new front door - I'm thrilled with it. The old one was single pane glass. The frame for it was cobbled together and wasn't well secured to a stud on the left side interior. Even with the storm door, there was so much cold air blowing in that I had to hang a large piece of felt over the door last winter.

In an effort to up the curb appeal of a front door that didn't have much punch, I also got a door surround. The curved arch pediment and pillars (made by Fypon) draw more attention and as Mom says "make my house look like it's smiling". Much credit goes to Alaina and Mom for sitting through endless questions about door, glass and surround combinations. We settled on this one from Pella - a 3/4 European door style with "Sheffield" glass. (still need to add a piece of Azek below the sill plate) The combination allows a lot of light into the hallway while giving more privacy; it's super nice to not feel like the neighborhood can see you walk downstairs in your PJs.

It was also fun to see the original siding while the aluminum siding was off. In addition to the new door, I updated the house numbers and doorbell. It's coming together!