Impatience, party of 2!

Enough is enough! And I have had enough of these ugly carpet stairs. We learned our lesson when we first started our renovations 2 years ago, that you really should stick to 1 project at a time. But everytime I walk in the door I secretly want to turn around and walk right back out when I am reminded of how old and gross the stairs have become over 2 years of renovations. We will be the first to admit we are not carpet people. Just can't maintain it! Between kids and pets it just doesn't stay clean, yet remarkably our rugs give us very little hassle...

But around 10am yesterday morning I decided to pull out my new entry dresser

and start ripping. Great plan, poor execution. Seems that the carpet is glued beyond belief and my measly muscles didn't make much of a dent. So I enjoyed my 1 clean step until Sean was able to help me later last night.

My Hero!!

And here it is this morning all cleaned up! We got all the nails and staples out and wiped all the steps down.

We have some repairs to make to the surrounding dry wall, and some serious sanding to do on the risers so we can paint them white but already we like it a million times better. Our original plan was to also go with new new spindles and railings (you might remember my temporary paint job from last year!), but after getting some info on how our railings are installed it seems like a MUCH bigger job than we anticipated and WAYYYY more expensive. We are talking more than a whole new kitchen expensive, and we just don't think the existing railings are that ugly to warrant a $10,000-$15,000 makeover. We are also mid-closet reno still so the clock is ticking to get this all accomplished before any of the parties we have planned for December!!!

We know that it is a big job, and one that seems pretty intimidating so we will be sharing some of our hard-learned lessons and tips as we go~