Be-foyer and After

My entry is done. New stairs. New tile. New paint. Broken finger. All totally worth it. Look! Here's the be-foyer:

Those are pine forest green tiles on the floor. Dirty faux berber carpet on the stairs. Honey oak trim. Peanut butter paint. And a chandelier that says, "Would you like an onion blossom appetizer before your fajitas?"
So...first...I was determined to do it all myself, not just because of budget constraints, but because I'm weird like that.
Remember when I started painting a million years ago?

Cutting in up there took the skills of Spiderman and Rain Man combined. But I pushed on.

And tackled that railing. With gel stain.

Took a hammer to the green tiles. Maggie's hammer is there, too. Ripped up the backer board.

Messy. Satisfying. Worked out a lot of aggression.

Painted the front door yellow. 

Put on a new doorknob. At 10 o'clock at night. Don't ever attempt this. Look at these doorknob instructions. Are you fucking kidding me? I don't often cuss on my blog, but are you fucking kidding me? 10 o'clock at night. Exhausted. Husband away. Needed to lock door for the night. Pushed on. 

Got the tiles down. Still needed to grout. Grouting is hard. 

And then turned to the faux berber. It was mocking me. And I ripped and ripped and pulled and cut, and it felt sooooo good. 

And to my horror, those particle board treads had to come out. Big ugly bull nosed things. 12 of them total. Couldn't cover them. Couldn't stain them. They had to come out. Crowbar. Puuuush...FALL...forward, thank god, and I was a crying, crumbled mess on the stairs. Broken finger. Husband calls from kitchen, "Just stop and let me do it!" "NNOOOO!" I growled through my tears. I was not going to have him step in and do the hard parts. So I pushed on. Each particle board tread was attached with 6 screws, 16 nails, and industrial strength construction adhesive. Ouch. 

Whoa dizzy. Don't look down.

Did I leave my wine glass in the garage?

Oh, there it is! Feeling very cirque de soleil.

So are you ready for the after? After all those in betweens? Ok, here it is. Remember the before?

I love to torture you so you feel my pain. And then my ultimate JOY!

I can't stop staring at it. I just sit on the steps and stare. Stair at it?

It is so unbelievably satisfying that I did this. I've never done anything like it, but, hey, I watch the DIY network, you know? The chandelier was a $35 clearance special order orphan. The mirror was a 50% off from Hobby Lobby. I'm amazed at how little I actually spent. Sure, there was the broken finger. But whatever. So worth it.

I love the little edge of black tiles that lead down the bottom half of the stairs.

I feel like I'm in Paris instead of Minnesota now.