My Staircase Project & Black Bean Soup!....

You can tell this project has been hanging around for a while because 

as you might notice....the front door is wide open!

Yes, it's true, this project started back on

June 25, 2012....

I remember this because it was on my

Birthday!

 What should we do for Mom for her Special Day....

Let's tear up the carpet!!!

Let's do it in Style....

 In our dresses!

 Yeah and let's grab those tools that will get the job done!

Like the log poker from the fireplace....

and maybe Dad's chainsaw sharpener....

~Oops~

Sorry Dad, didn't mean for that to happen!

Well the job got done and the carpet was off the stairs and out

of the house by the next morning. And we were left with this....

 ~UGLY~

 broken stairs and risers. Thankfully only 3 steps were broken

really bad.  But there were carpet nails and staples to be pulled.

The girls did ~most~ of that too, but we found more as the 

months passed.  Why "months" you ask! Because hubby had to

research how to fix these steps.  They couldn't be removed and replaced

with new.  First it would involve trying to remove the spindles

without breaking those and there wouldn't be all the nicks and dents

that we call ~Character~ ! 

 After all, our Home was built in 1879!

 I thought about leaving the edges all rough and worn, but it 

was recommended to me not to do that.  

 So I washed them down the best I could

Then primed the "good" ones.

And waited for my guy to figure out what to do with the

broken steps.  That took a couple of months!

 But he finally figured it out and he spent alot of time

filling all of those nail holes and sanding it all down for me

to start priming.  You can see the sanding dust on the 

wall.  No matter what we did to try and trap all that dust

in one area, it basically covered the whole downstairs

of our Home!

 There is just one area that stands out and there

was really no way to fix that.  

I knew I wanted the risers to be white.  But it had to 

match as close as possible to the rest of the trim.  I

was dreading the possibility of having to paint each and

every spindle on this stair rail.  We were lucky enough

to find some paint that ~amazingly~ matched close

enough that you'd have to be pretty close to see a difference.

It was Antique White!

Found at Menards and it is meant for

Property Management, Tenant Improvement & Drywall Maintenance!

in Semi-Gloss

Now on to the fun part....

putting on the final color!

But, wait a minute....

What does Black Bean Soup have to do with 

re-doing your stairway?

That's the name of the paint color I chose!

It's dark brown black....

~just like~

Black Bean Soup!

It is the next best thing to having stripped each and every step!

Well, that couldn't have happened because of all of the nicks, 

nail holes and staples!  After all of the hard work that my

hubby did, the stairs are so sturdy sounding.  It use to be

you could hear every creek of each and every step.

Not any more!

 And I love the detail of each step from the side.

They use to be just plain ole' white.  Nothing special!

 But now your eye is drawn right up the stairway.

and then back down!

I played around with painting the curly cue decorations,

but it looked too busy for me.  And actually, with the steps

being painted such a deep color, they stand out alot more.

This was one long project for sure.  I finished the final
 touches today.  But I must say

 it was worth the wait!  The carpet is long gone.

It feels so much cleaner and my worry of them feeling cold

beneath our feet has not bothered us at all.  

Sometimes those dreaded projects end up being

well worth the time spent doing them!

Now we're onto the next Big project!

Hopefully it won't take quite as long to complete!

(well, it kind of will, but I'll explain later)

What Big project have you done that you've dreaded?

Let me know, I'd love to hear!

Thanks for stopping, I always appreciate your visits!