Stair project underway

Tuesday, 6:23 pm

By Kate

Feb

17

2009

Today J came over and we began the stairway project. The carpeting is now all ripped out and all the nail strips are pried off. That’s only the first stage because when we rip into a project there is never only one stage.

The stairs are not in the greatest shape. I didn’t really expect them to be. They were never built to be un-carpeted—which is to say, the builders slapped them together without much care for detail work and dripped paint all over them. There is a gap of at least a quarter inch along the sides of some of the stair treads and none of the risers actually meet the wall. A little trim and some wood putty should take care of the aesthetics, but it’s going to be a fussy and time consuming project. I’m painting the stairs anyway, so that should be okay.

I’ll probably take some before and after photos, to see how close I come to my perfectionist standard. I think I’ll do some stenciling, too.

The very bottom step has to be removed and repaired or replaced. It has a lovely crack in it. I think it can be glued and clamped with good results. If not, well, nuts.

In any case, I have my different grades of sand paper, tack cloth, trim, and primer paint all ready to go. This is going to be finished as soon as humanly possible.