Before and After Pics

Our carpet is now in! There are a couple of cuts I am not sure about, but I will live with it for a couple of days and see if they bother me as much as I think they do now. We still have a few more spindles to paint, so we'll be extra careful around the new runner. I think it looks good overall. The dark paint may be a little light for the black band we chose on the runner, but again, we'll live with it first.

We went with a crossley carpet called cafe au lait with a small check pattern. We added a 2 inch band down the sides. When the installers unrolled it, they immediately commented to each other on how awesome it looked as they had not seen one done with the large band. I guess that is generally more common with area rugs. I am so glad we paid more to have that great band done, it really completes the look.

We were at 38 man hours. Since I posted last, we have added

10 more painting hours

6 more painting hours to go

2 hours to install carpet, although they were not my personal hours of course.

Overall start to finish
56 man hours. Phew, what a job.

Staircase 3

We're getting there, and it's a slow process. Our painting today was actually pretty easy since we did not do any of the spindles.

We decided to go with Bittersweet Chocolate by Benjamin Moore on the Rail and Steps and Cloud White, also BM, on the spindles and risers. We decided to go with the new Aura paint and we LOVE it. This stuff glides on and is very forgiving with brush strokes. It was $66 a gallon, but very worth the price and I will be painting with Aura for all our future projects. We chose to go latex over oil and so far so good. A good tip is to brush into the previous paint you brushed on and not brush away from. Better coverage.

Where are we for time

2 more hours of priming

1 hour sanding

12 man hours of painting

We were not sure if we should sand the primer coat and were looking online for some info. We could not find what we were looking for so I took a piece of 220 and lightly sanded a rail. If you are thinking of skipping this step, don't. It made a huge difference and well worth the extra hour we spent doing it.

So, we have finished the first coat of the brown. Tomorrow, we'll add another coat of brown and let it sit for a few days as we want to be able to tape off to get a crisp line for the white.

We went shopping for a runner and think we may have found something. We went to 4 different carpet stores and finally found a place we really liked. Dodd and Souter in Whitby was great and we brought some samples home today to try them out. We're looking to have a custom runner made and add a 2 inch cotton band on either side. Apparantly not many people make then custom, so we were happy to fine this company. Their selection was amazing and while expensive, I think they will do a really nice job.

Total man hours to date = 38

Staircase 2

We're coming along, but had I had a real feel for how much work this was going to be, I might have reconsidered.

We used a total of 3 tubes of woodfill to fill those holes, then it was sanding time. I used a detail sander with 120 grit paper for the flat surfaces, what a great time saver. I did a very light sanding on the spindles and railing using 120 as well. Once that was done, I ran my hand over every surface and used a piece of 220 grit to fine detail each step.

When we finished sanding, everything was shop vac'ed, then a damp cloth was taken over every inch of the surface to remove dust. I followed this up with a dry cloth to ensure there was no chalky feeling.

We chose to prime with Zinsser B-I-N. This allows really good coverage and hides knots, previous railing stain on the stairs and various other dark areas. Warning, this stuff is not bad smelling at all but has a strong fume, so I would use a fan or something to move some air around. I found myself lightheaded and not feeling so great a couple of times. Great thing about this primer is that it is dry to touch in 15 minutes and completely dry in 45 mins.

Since this primer dries pretty quick, you want to move fast. We found the best was to paint spindles was to have one person on each side to catch each others drips on the curves. Soon we had a great system and after a handfuls of "you're not painting right" and some growls, I made a pact to bite my tongue and let John give the staircase his own personal touch.

I can tell you, I never realized we had so many hard to reach areas and crevices. If I never paint another spindle I'll be just fine. However with 2 coats of paint to follow, I know that is not realistic.

The funny thing is, once you pullup that carpet, it is the point of no return. I have no choice, I have to finish what I started. I should mention that in starting this, John decided to help and it soon became a "project" that would be a great bonding experience. John has since joked that this is a test to see if our marriage will survive lol.

Added to our time so far.

1 more hour of wood filling
4 hours of sanding
7 hours of priming

I think we have about 22 man hours invested in this staircase so far. The priming is not quite finished. I worked on it for an hour again this morning, and have some harder areas I need john to reach on a ladder. We also have a railing overlooking our living room with the cathedral ceiling. We have decided to do this once the rest is complete.

So, we are off to the lake for a few more days. When we return, we'll complete the rest of the priming and start on paint.

We are still undecided whether to go with oil or latex. The primer we chose is great for either. The woman at Benjamin Moore said neither was good and we had to use floor paint. We can not get the floor paint dark enough for the stairs though, so this option won't work. I am leaning towards latex. We are going to have a runner on the steps too, so I think we'll be ok.

Staircase Makeover

It seems I forgot I had this blog, but no time like the present to start an update. We started our stair makeover today. We had originally planned to leave the carpet and paint out the rails, however I was in love with a staircase I saw on the House and Home forums. A poster named France had the most incredible stairs and I decided to just go for it. John and I ripped up the carpet today. Can I just say now, I had no idea how much work this was going to be. However, I am so excited to get it started and can't wait to finish it.

Here's our before photo, pre-flooring

Todays work:

Tearing out carpet and carpet tack bars 4 man hours

Removing a thousand staples 5 hours

Some woodfill 1 hour


We started by tearing out the carpet. This job was easy enough, just messy. I bought a new shop vac just to start this project. I'm a clean as you go person, so it stayed relatively clean. We used a pry bar and screwdriver to take up the tack bars. Good news....The carpet was very well installed. Bad news...It was too well installed. I am not sure why they needed so many tack bars, but if there was ever a hurricane, I am sure the carpet would have been intact had the house blown away. Here is what we found. The treads are made of 2x10's and there are a few knots and various gouges in the wood itself. The wedge shaped stairs are plywood'ish. The landing midway is plywood I think, but a really textured plywood (maybe it's called pressboard). I don't think this landing will be pretty to paint, but the runner should hide most of it. The risers are all MDF. I think some sanding will help with the shaping of the treads as some of them look a little wonky.

Then it was time to remove the staples. Two different sizes of staples and at least a thousand...ouch. This was pain staking I tell you and I am glad to be through that piece.

Next I started with some wood filler. After removing the tackbars and a thousand staples, you can guess how the stairs look. I thought filling in those holes would be a smart idea to really finish the look. I only bought 1 tube of filler and did not get a third of the steps finished today, so I am going to buy 3 more tubes of natural wood fill tomorrow and finish it up.



Here is where we are