Anatomy of a Remodel: Ready to Land

Today we are going to focus on a part of the house we haven’t dealt with at all but that you will have seen in passing in some of the past pictures: the stairs and the upstairs landing.
I’m showing you most of the process from start to finish but Mr. Remodel and helpers have been working away in this area along with some of the other rooms - as you see from the pictures.

Here’s what we started with. Love the scribbling on the furnace door.

The gaps between the metal railings were too wide for the current building code so we would have to do something with this railing even if we liked it (which we do not – way too retro for Mr. & Mrs. R). Plus it wobbles too much to lean on it with any confidence.

Up came the carpet and about half a ton of dust and dirt lying underneath. We also removed the silly little strips of wood that someone put on the edge of the stair treads to make them the correct length (or do I mean depth?)

We talked about doing hardwood stairs but Mr. & Mrs. Remodel think that if they ever fell down stairs, carpet might break less bones on the way down. You don’t really want to think of yourself as being that old or feeble but we are hoping to grow old in this house.

Ooo look new stair treads! Ultimately it was easier than trying to make the old one work by adding to them.

Give Mr. R and the helpers an opportunity to rip stuff out and there’s not stopping them. The floorboards were creaky so Mr. R thought they needed to be screwed down tighter. Except five minutes later it became a good idea to rip most of the landing up to put down new boards.

We were sleeping upstairs at this time so I was more than a little interested in this work getting done as quickly as possible. Mrs. R isn’t up to tightrope walking when she gets up in the middle of the night. Too James Bond.

Here is Mr. Remodel’s replacement for the metal railing. Inside the drywall is a wooden frame with an end post going down below the floorboards so it is nice and sturdy.