Stairs

In the fine tradition of old house renovation everywhere our simple little project has grown exponentially. It started with let’s fix the walls and paint. It morphed to “ok, scrape off all the old wallpaper under the paint, fix the walls, and then paint”. Now the front door looks dingy and needs painted. Then there is the floor.

Background- When the SO moved here he was told that the floor in the foyer, stairs, and hall were icky so that’s why they were covered with hideous navy blue carpet when the rest of the floors were hardwood. Last year his brother and I pulled up the foyer carpet in preparation for laying a new floor and found a fine hardwood floor. Then he peeled up a bit of carpet on the stairs, said that the wood was in fact icky, and put the carpet back. We took this as gospel truth. Our plan was to eventually replace this carpet.

For some reason last night the SO and the worker guy decided to challenge conventional wisdom and pull up a section of carpet.

Hardwood stairs.

The carpet is not giving up without a fight. It was the most secure carpet ever. Three of us working for three hours were able to uncover four steps. I did the stair part and they both worked on the edges. There are hundreds of staples and nails per step. This carpet was not going to get up and run away. See all the little tufts on the vertical part of the stairs? Padding being held in by tiny staples every half inch.

It is going to take a long time to get this all up. Then the stairs need scrubbed because there is paint on them from whoever painted the spindles last. But finally the icky carpet will be gone.