BEFORE & AFTER: BACK STAIRS

BEFORE:
First viewing of back stairwell, February 2011

(Plaster was falling off of the walls and ceiling.  The support to the stairs had been cut to accommodate a washer and dryer below.  Window sill and trim had been chewed past repair by some creature...Can you say squirrel or raccoon?  Kind of scary.)

AFTER: Back stairwell
December 2012

It is now safe to traverse this stairway.  In fact, it is my favorite route to take each morning to the kitchen below.

BEAD BOARD STAIR WALL INSTALL

    A year ago when we bought this house there was a bead board wall with a door enclosing the back stairway.

  

The bead board itself is pretty unique, albeit damaged.  I have searched all over town for a double bead board of this thickness and width, to no avail.

The stairs had had some of the support timber cut to fit a washer and dryer beneath the stairs.  This alteration lead to unsafe stairs.   See how the stair treads are lower on the right hand side?

    The wall has been down now for some time and, don't you know, we saved the bead board to be re-installed.  It is time to do just that.  Since we are re-configuring the wall to rail height in order to open up the space a bit, it has taken a bit of puzzling as to how that can be done.

    Donnie has properly supported the stairs and recently finished repairing the cracked and damaged treads (see my previous promo for Gorilla Glue).  It is time to build the wall.

Here's what I did one morning last week....

The old railing is off the new drywall by about a half inch at the top of the stairs.  

I removed the handrail to access the first section of bead board

A putty knife works to get through layers of paint and separate the section of board.

Nails hold the board to the top step

My saw makes quick work of the nails.

The board is removed and saved to replicate the angle.

I cut a board to be a nailing flange for the longer and wider piece of bead board.

There's more to come.  We just about completed the wall install yesterday.....Check back!

CORBELS AND WOODCUTS

    For a little while now I have been keeping an eye out for a set of 4 old corbels to be used on the kitchen island.  I have not been looking for any particular design.  It is difficult enough finding a set of 4 and even more difficult finding a set of 4 in relatively good condition.  Today was my day.  I found 4 fantastic corbels at Paul's Place

A little elbow grease required but essentially solid

A happy coincidence  I discovered just a moment ago when I was looking at a photo of the stairs at Hawthorne Avenue.....

A similar pattern in the woodcut trim on the stairs

BIG STEPS

  Our stairs have been needing attention.  Who knows how long they have been sagging.  We finally tackled this job one day in early December when it was too wet to continue our work outside.  The repair required jacking the stairs up and jacking the stairs required removal of the banister.  No big deal, right?

Using a broken stair picket as a pump lever.....

And a couple 6x6 pieces of lumber and some nerve.....

The left side of the stairs is lifted back to its original position

We secured 3 stacked and screwed together 2x4's as a corner support then went to work on the right side in a similar fashion.  More jacking, and leveling, and securing with bolts and....
          

VOILA !   A level stairway