stairs to upstairs...

So a few posts ago, I shared the boys laying the floors upstairs. Many of you were stressing out about the lack of railings...scaredy cats! We are now much safer, and pretty to look at too.

Paint color SW Restrained Gold,
although I am still not getting the correct color with my lack of camera skills

Since the basement is far from finished and full of stuff we have yet to unpack, let's head upstairs.

We have two bedrooms and a bathroom separated by a sort of cat walk type hallway above our great room. We also have a little loft area in between the bedrooms.

Don't look at the sconce which doesn't have a shade yet...

We stained the stair treads, newel posts, and the railings ourselves. The color we used was Jacobean from Minwax. We used one coat of stain and three coats of sealer. I can not imagine doing any more coats---all that sanding and staining! 

And get this... our builder supply store didn't measure right the first time, so we have 7 stair treads in our basement that are too small...and all stained and varnished! But that is another story, for another day.

Turn right at the top of the steps and you have the guest area (futureroomforsupercutekidssomeday) Straight ahead is our guest bedroom or currently my dad's room since he stays with us a few days every week while he works on the exterior stone. To the left is our full guest bath.

I like how the area is separated by a little nook, and there is enough room for a small dresser or large hamper...which is good new to us...because silly me didn't put a linen closet near that bathroom...

to the left to the left...

To the left you see our entry foyer over the railing and the other guest room behind that door. We added a little loft area last minute when they told us that was just going to be wasted space behind a wall. We are happy we did, it will be a nice place for a desk or a little reading nook.

Our chandelier is actually from the good old Home Depot. It is the Barcelona 6 light Rustic Iron Chandelier
We wanted sometime that wouldn't break the bank, but still had the style we were going for in the house.  It actually looks a little dinky in this photo for some reason, but it's pretty large in real life, but it does fit in well with the space.

Iron balusters and jacobean stained newel posts and treads.

The iron ballusters. This is second behind my fireplace as my favorite item in the house....We couldn't decide on the basket design that attaches on the iron balusters so we said NEVERMIND in the midst of frustration to make a choice. But I am glad we left them as is. Some of the designs are just too fancy for me and I like the look we ended up with.

Watching Adam build a fire.

Now everyone can relax. The dog will not fall off the catwalk...getting his head stuck in between those iron balusters? Maybe.

Halfway through hardwood.

This Sunday afternoon Adam and two of his buddies installed the hardwood on the second floor.  

We chose a dark walnut distressed engineered hardwood. The brand is Pinnacle hardwoods

I would have loved to go with an even wider plank but money does not grow on trees! It's funny the wider the planks and the more distressed looking the hardwood, the higher the price. I guess distressed  look is hip.

Anyway, we made the right choice. We are very pleased with how they turned out. 

Take a look:

(Wait...Pretty much all of these photos don't even close to show the beautiful colors of my walls. I am camera dumb. I will figure that out later.)

across the catwalk.

Scout supervising as usual.

I have a feeling these might be tough to keep clean...

wiping down the dust on the landing.

this photo seems to show the best color.

from the steps.

all clean!

Adam said the install was pretty simple. I was surprised they were done so quickly while I was doing a project in the garage all day. Which I will share in the next week or so hopefully!

Next the stairs should be installed, this is not something we are attempting to DIY. But once those are installed the upstairs will be finished except for trim and carpet. And we have carpet scheduled for last week of October install....right before MOVE IN!

We will install the same flooring on the main floor in the dining/kitchen area, and throughout the great room and hallway.

How do you feel about engineered versus real hardwood?
What do you think about the wood tones? 
Do you like distressed look or the smooth clean look?
Did you notice Adam wears the same Margaritaville shirt in just about every photo lately? I think it's his favorite DIY shirt.