I like seeing everybody else's projects so I thought I would load my current one and a recent one to help explain. I am not good with images and I think the finished staircase, if the title appears the entry stairs, will be rotated. Sorry about that. They are done. The other picture with the pine paneling is the current project, the stairs in my Great Room.
The GR stairs is a much smaller project. They were framed correctly but the treads were stained dark (they are oak) and needed refinished. I used my Bosch DEVS1250 sander to remove the finish (Fein multi-master in the corners) and then refinished the treads with 4 coats of Parks polyurethane. The risers and skirt boards used to be the same color as the paneling. I've gradually changed the trim in the house to white so I changed these too. It took a coat of primer plus two coats of semi-gloss but, as you can see, they are now white.
I did not get my balusters on order soon enough, however. I had paperwork to do this weekend anyway. But they should arrive Friday. I drilled the holes today. The old balusters were wood and I want iron. They were also spaced 9.5 inches apart - much too far. So I will put one new one between each of the old ones. The holes for the wooden balusters were too big for the iron so I cut off the ends of the wooden ones and used construction adhesive to glue them into the holes to plug them. Then I drilled the holes for the iron. Worked fine. I will use the caps on the end of the iron balusters to hide this fix.
The entry staircase was framed incorrectly. The maximum rise was 3 inches more than the minimum. And the minimum was 8 inches which is too much to meet current code. So I tore the whole mess out and reframed it. I changed as many treads as reasonably possible to open treads- none were before. And I added a coat closet underneith. The iron balusters in the entry will be repeated in the great room.
The entry also needed the popcorn ceiling scraped, drywall tape fixed, and wallpaper removed. The ceiling rises to 16.5 feet so I bought some scaffold.
I am winding down on the interior of this house but still need to refinish the hallway at the top of the GR stairs and a bedroom floor behind it. I hired the other hardwood refinished but this area is so small I am planning to do it myself. Too much of a hassle to arrange a contractor.
I am looking forward to making some furniture again when I get the floor refinished upstairs. It's not a difficult job ad shouldn't take too long but I just like furniture making better. I need a couple bedroom sets and a dining room table and chairs. That's probably the better part of next year for me, at my pace.
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