Carpet on stairs.
Why, oh why, must they (builder's) put carpet on stairs?
I mean, I know why of course, it's much more cost effective.
But oh, so not prettier.
Trust me, I'm well aware of the fact that there happen's to be a ton of people carpeting their stairs!
All the time!
Because that's what they like.
But I also know that there are a slew of people moving in to those houses and tearing it all off again.
I would be the later of the two.
When we built this house I asked (begged actually) the builder to not carpet the stairs...they said no. We are are a semi custom home builder, I was told....you want a wood staircase...go build a custom home.
Thank's a lot.
So after a year and a half of staring at that carpet, and noticing in just that short amount of time, it was starting to look a lot older then that already. I sent Brian (my hubs) a text "Hey honey, how would you feel if I ripped all the carpet off the stairs?" His reply: "If that makes you happy."
Ten minute's later.... I sent him this picture
His response, "thing's just got real!"
He's a patient guy.
I spent the next hour tearing it all up. Pulling staples and nails.
I felt very confident in my decision because even in this condition, I liked it so much better.
Brian was a champ and worked on it for days and days. He filled in all the staple and nail holes and then started sanding it all down.
The sanding was a pain, and even though we tried to be proactive and tarp it off, it still made a giant mess!
Once it was all sanded and looking (in my opinion) very pretty, already. It was time to stain.
Brian stained every other stair so we were able to get up and down them during the process. Smart.
Then he polyurethaned them with a spray...I'm pretty sure that part took a few years of our lives, with all the stinky fumes that it produced.
The kid's were outside...I know you what you were thinking.
We finished with white paint on the risers and finally we were done!
This project was not hard at all, but it definitely took longer than we had planned.
But the outcome was so worth it and I don't have to look at that yucky carpet anymore!
So my suggestion is, if you want a wood staircase and you are staring at yucky carpet.
Pull it up and see what's under there....you'll be so happy you did!
