Wowza Sandy! I'm in love with your stairway. And how unique to have a bowling alley as a kitchen counter. Being a bowler I knew it right away as I strolled through your photos before reading. I'm think we need to head to the salvage place before we do our stairs. We've been living with construction grade stairs for well over five years! I would love to have such a wonderful balustrade as either of yours. And I think they look wonderful together! Funny I dreamed this morning of finishing our stairs and come here and get inspired to do so with salvage!

I just love looking at your pictures- they are always creative and individualistic. I love how you reusue materials that come with a story, and with a beautiful result. Your stairs, railings, and newels are very handsome. And your counter came out beautifully.

P.S. I love your red windows and I also am a fan of brass.

Beautiful and such creative uses for salvaged parts. I wish I could have found more salvaged items for our remodel, but maybe as we go along with future renovations.

If you live on the water, and heck even if you don't, brass is very appropriate!

Kat :)

What beautiful and inventive renovations! Especially love the bowling counter....how clever is that! The stairs are unique and just as lovely, too! Great reuse of materials!!

WOW !! You get the GOLD STAR for the coolest salvage yet. I was looking for stairs 7 yrs ago and didn't even know about salvage at that time. I LOVE that countertop in the kitchen and that red window...well that is just perfect. What a wonderfully unique and fabulous home you are creating. Everything will have a story...will take hours to show folks through.

I can always see my visitors getting glassy eyed as I wax poetic about the salvage LOL. c

I love it, it looks like it belongs there.

Gorgeous, just gorgeous!

Sooooo wonderful! Your work and creativity are fabulous. Funny coincidence: DH was just telling me how happy he is with some Epifanes varnish he had the guys use on his boat restoration. Your counter top looks nautical--like a yacht galley--to me. How did you find working with their products?

I love your staircase - all of really works well together! Wish I could have found some cool salvage but it's just too far to drive to go looking for stuff like that (local GW doesn't carry architectural pieces). I had to settle for mail-order Victorian repro brackets to make my stairs unique.

Fine Woodworking just rated Epifanes very highly for exterior use, your countertop should hold up nicely. The stuff's expensive, though! I was thinking of buying some to use on porch rocker but with the price I don't know - and 7-10 coats, well, that could end up costing more than the rocker if it takes 2 quarts (over the years). How often does DH have to refinish his boat? How was it to work with indoors - or did you have to do countertop outdoors before installing? What do you plan for maintenance?

Thanks to all of you for the lovely compliments, mr. sandyponder and I are absolutely beaming! We've had both the bowling alley and the stairs for a few years, waiting till we have the money and time to get them in properly. I highly encourage using old house parts, they add instant patina (for those of us who dig patina) and seem to imbue the house with presence (for lack of a more precise word). The only caution I will offer is to have your contractor on board (or DIY the work, we've done a mix), some of them want to go to the Depot and just buy everything, so hunt for someone who can appreciate your vision and vintage parts.

WRT the Epifanes, I read that same article in FW, that's why we tried it, and yuppers, it's expensive, but all good paint/stain products are expensive, and using wood around the sink, well, let's just say the cautious member of the sandyponder household (not YT) wanted to be sure we were using the right stuff. It went on like a dream, and dried in 12-14 hours, but we waited the full 24 between coats. Leaving the wood finish gloss alone made for a very, very shiny countertop, so we added the rubbed effect varnish and it dulled it down nicely (shiny = dirt magnet IMO and we're not really into cleaning, so...).

Thank you again to everyone, I'm off to glaze the hutch-cum-flat screen TV holder in the den.

sandyponder

It's absolutely stunning, you have great vision !!
now we want to see all your other projects, lol.....

How was the Epifanes for fumes/smell? I was thinking Waterlox for my stairs, but heard that the smell is really bad (and I'm not sure about drying time - I might have to do fat-drying poly now that we're living in the house, or wait til we're all packed and ready to go on vacation, have all the bags in the car so no last-minute trips upstairs).