Hello everyone,

In the first two shots you can see the old staircase in the background
through the old dining room doorway into the main hall. That was the day I
took possession of the house. I had just started banging holes in the walls
to see what was behind them before I went into full demolition mode and
removed all the walls on the main floor. I knew the carpet was coming off
the stairs, but I didn't know what was underneath them. It turns out the
staircase was nothing more than dimensional lumber with carpet on it. Pretty
low end. This would not fit in with my plans for the house.

Once all the demo, structural work, electrical rough in, drywall and new
subfloor were in, I contacted a friend from work who owns a staircase
company about a new staircase. He came over on a Saturday and Katarina and I
talked with him for a couple of hours about what could be built. While the
old staircase may have met code 30 years ago, simple dropping a new one in
today would not. We would need one more tread. He came up with the idea of a
platform at the bottom to get that additional tread. The old staircase had a
wrought iron railing with a plastic cap that went on the outside and bent
inward where the stair went into the ceiling and up to the second floor.
After much discussion we settled on a design. A diminishing railing on the
outside that would die into the ceiling, a full railing on the wall, square
pickets and a panel newel post.

The stair case was supposed to take 4-5 weeks from order to install, but it
took longer. It turns out you can not just go to one of those big square
places and pick up a sheet of Jatoba plywood (for the risers). Once the
custom sheet of Jatoba ply showed up, the staircase was finished and ready
to be put in. I was out of town the day it was to be installed. I was eager
to get home and check it out. Just the main staircase body was installed on
the first day, it was 90%+ built off site. All the railing and trim
materials had been milled oversize and were fitted on site over the next two
days.

I then had to lay the tile in the entranceway, flooring on the two landings,
finish the trim myself, prep and finish the staircase. I have never spent so
much time on such small areas of flooring. I really am embarrassed to admit
how long those two little platforms took. I bet half the main floor will not
take as long.

I shot four coats of Magnalac pre-cat lacquer with a Kremlin HVLP system. A
staircase is probably not the best spray project for a first timer, but it
went well. I only had one run, which was caused by me bumping my head and
stopping the gun. This was sanded down and fixed on the last coat.

I am very pleased with how things went and I could not be happier with the
outcome.

I have some time off over the holidays and I hope to get a lot of the 1600
sq ft of Jatoba flooring out of boxes and down on the floor.

My plans to take a 30 year old house and turn it into a 80-100 year old open
concept are taking shape...

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him