Quick update on the house: we finally had it painted (nope, we didn't do it ourselves...). We got a good deal and it turned out very nice. I don't have any photos of it done, but here's one in progress:

Here's a photo of the framing, showing the funky angles of the stringers and joists fitting together. For something that looks relatively simple when it's done, having the stairs at an angle to the deck have added a LOT of extra time to the project. It's hard to explain how much more thinking this requires... anyway, this photo is after we pulled the temporary plywood deck surface off, but before installing the new redwood deck boards:

And here's photo of some of the new railing in place:

Another shot showing the new railing (obviously it's not all done yet) along with the new deck boards (again, not quite done):

Also, I finally cut, stained, and installed the transition piece from the new flooring in the dining room to the old linoleum flooring in the kitchen... it was tough because the height difference is 1+ inches, which is not a standard transition size. Typically, if you have a transition that big, you did something wrong. But, eventually the layers in the kitchen will be removed and it will be much closer to level then. Sorry, no photos at this time. That's it for now.