Our Secret Stairs and Current Renovation Project

Have you every been curious how our troops get from upstairs to downstairs and from downstairs to upstairs?  A secret elevator?  Or maybe an escalator?  Some sort of high tech space tunnel you would have seen on the Jetsons?

Part of the reason you haven't seen our staircase, other than in this awful photo from two years ago...

Is because for the last two years it has looked like this:

Ew right?! 

Right after the lower level flood, we had to pull the carpet on the stairs.  It was soggy, dirty and just down right disgusting.

We made the decision that carpeted stairs were no longer for us.  They quickly show wear, gobble up dust and dirt and with hard floors at the top and bottom of the staircase, carpeted stairs would look and feel a little out of place.

So, we have spent the last two years discussing potential options, doing a lot of inspiration searching and making boatloads of excuses to put off the huge staircase project.

Two years later and enough is really enough.  Unfinished stairs have been a constant thorn in my side and we have finally decided to quit dreading the project, slap a giant smile on our faces and get things done!

Once we had the carpet pulled, the first step was to remove all nails and staples with a pliers.  Then, we were left with the original stair treads {yes, for two whole years}....

Here is our current plan {which could change at a moments notice}:

1. Extend left wall at bottom of stairs to align with existing wall on the right.
2. Remove the bull-nose edge on existing stairs to give us a squared stair for our new solid wood stair kits.
3. Install new skirt boards along edges of the stairs.
4. Install handrail height molding.
5. Skim walls smooth in-between skirt board and handrail height molding.
6. Finish board and batten down both sides of the stairs and paint white.
7. Stain stair treads and paint stair risers.
8. Install risers and stair treads.
9. Install hand rail.
10. Celebrate!

This past weekend we began the project and knocked the first two items off of the list!

My father-in-law has done all of the drywall work in our entire home {it was his profession after all} so he popped over to help us get going with the process and adding the new wall.

The bad blogger in me didn't take before photos of the wall {or lack there of}, before he had already had a new one built and installed!  He is lightning fast!

The stairs have always been a smidge odd since the wall extends to the bottom stair on the right side, but stopped short on the left.  We made the choice to even things out and to give the stairs a more unified look.  Plus, the guys thought it would make finishing off the lower two stairs much simpler, and last but not least, the new wall gives me extra space in the studio to add a cozy chair.  Can't argue with that!

As you can see in this photo, while my father-in-law was working on the wall, my hubster was using a sawzall to very carefully cut the bull-nose edge off of each stair.

Pretty glamorous right?  Yeah, not so much.  Not yet anyway.  I can see it though, can you?

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So pretty right!?

Since I am a checklist gal and LOVE the feeling of being able to cross things off, I am going to do that now:

1. Extend left wall at bottom of stairs to align with existing wall on the right.
2. Remove the bull-nose edge on existing stairs to give us a squared stair for our new solid wood stair kits.
3. Install new skirt boards along edges of the stairs.
4. Install handrail height molding.
5. Skim walls smooth in-between skirt board and handrail height molding.
6. Finish board and batten down both sides of the stairs and paint white.
7. Stain stair treads and paint stair risers.
8. Install risers and stair treads.
9. Install hand rail.
10. Celebrate!

Anyone else take on a project as large as this and what advice do you have?  Any experts in the stain department? {It is really our first major staining project and I am a bit terrified!}  How about areas of your home that you have kept in hiding?