Over the 'decorator block' I think

I've been  fiddling for several days with the staircase.  I wanted to have what looked a little like a newel post at the bottom of the stairs, and it took a fair bit of experimentation to do it.  I'm not really happy with the result but it will have to do.  I added balsa on the stair side of the last railing, some scrap ply to the outside and smoothed it with woodfiller.  They're not nicely carved ones, just plain but I think they have more substance than the thin pieces that were there before.  Here it is in progress before I finished it off

 Once it was properly dry I sanded and shaped them a bit more, then gave them several coats of paint and one of satin varnish.  They still need to be topped off with squares on the top of the posts.

The first floor landing received the same treatment before the railing was added.

  I kept losing interest and drifting off to do other things, including painting, 'aging' and varnishing the kitchen hutch (oops! the drawer has come out and I didn't notice when I took the photo)

making a 9-drawer cupboard (yes, it counts because it's for the Fairfield somewhere) though it's not painted yet because I'm not sure what colour to do it;

making a trim piece for the foyer side of the archway to the living room which has since snapped so I have to re-make it;  and just perusing other Fairfield blogs.  But mainly cladding walls. So here they are so far,  first the living room bay window wall (bit of a mis-measurement on the front of the bay window - fortunately this will be covered by the corner trim):

 Then the kitchen bay window wall.  this photo shows that I've done part of the porch wall but I don't want to do any more of that wall until the tower goes in.

 And the rear, dining room wall.

They all need another coat or two of paint of course.  And you'll have noticed that the bay windows are not clad on the lower half.  You'll see why later on.

And finally I've been fiddling with the area under the stairs. In the original Fairfield this is supposed to be another built-in bookcase but I want it to be a pantry.  After lots of cutting, fitting and teeth-grinding I've set the piece that is supposed to support the back of the staircase further back into the area.  I will close in the top part of the area and put shelves in the cavity for the pantry.  Then I'll add a door that (hopefully) will open to display lots of goodies.

It sure doesn't look much for all the work it took to get this far :)  But it's a good spot for the pantry and it will be easy to display things in there.

And I've repainted the kitchen - now it's cream again!  The green just wasn't the right green - lightening it changed it too much even though it's the same green as that used on the exterior.  I have an idea for the flooring and will try it out on Monday.

So that's it up to now.  What do you think?