Topic: We're having our stairs redone

[bestofour]

and I don't know where to start.  I found online all the names of the parts of the stairs but now I've got to figure out what I want to use.

Have you redone your stairs?  Any advice?

[Dianna]

A spiral staircase would be nice....

[bestofour]

yes it would but we don't have room.

[Tina]

I get dizzy on spiral stairs.

[Dianna]

Sheri, I would think that a spiral staircase would take up less room...

I get dizzy on spiral stairs.

Tina, you are not supposed to be sliding down the banisters!

[bestofour]

They have to have room to spiral out, like in a cirlce sort of.  The stairs we have now are straight and if we spiral them out they'll go into the foyer.

The pickets we have now are painted.  Do I want painted again or stained?  Or do I need new friends to ask?

[Dianna]

Ahhh. I understand now. I was thinking the spiral would be a straight up and down thing...

What color are your pickets? I think I would prefer stained, myself, but I don't have any stairs...

Or do I need new friends to ask?

Make sure they are interior designers and charge you an arm and leg for their opinions. Then you will know that they know what they are talking about!

[bestofour]

Or do I need new friends to ask?

hahahaha

[bestofour]

The pickets now are white.  I'm thinking white looks good but they have to be painted.  If I get stained maybe it would cut out repair work.  My mother and 2 of my sisters just had their stairs done but they put in wrought iron.  I thought about that but my house was built in 1929 and it's just not the wrought iron type of house.

[Dianna]

How often do you have to paint them?

[barleychown]

Mine are white, and while I love them, and wouldn't change, I can see where I will be needing to paint them in the next year ot two.

My Grandma had stained oak, and in the 13 years she lived there, they were never even in need of a touch-up.

My absolute favorite stairs widen a bit at the bottom stairs...sort of flare out. Do you have room for that?

[bestofour]

Ours do flare out and we're going to keep it and maybe add an inch.

Do you have a picture of your stairs?

I'll get one of mine and you can advise me por favor.

[barleychown]

No picture, but I can get one later. Mine are very plain, straight stairs, white railings, white risers, solid cherry treads.  I want to make them flair out at the bottom...I'll just tack that on Mike's to do list. 

[Jessica]

We only have stairs going to our basement and they are nothing fancy.  We don't have a 2nd floor in our house.  But, our stairs to the basement is an open staircase, meaning that we have a railing upstairs that goes around where the stairs go down.  Make sense?  I don't know how to explain it.  Anyway, it is wrought iron.  When we first looked at our house, we both said that we would change that and put in a wood railing.  Now that we live there we like it.  It is back in style I guess.  But I can see where it might not fit in your house, Sheri.  You have to like what you put in.

[Jessica]

At my old house the stairs flared out at the bottom.  I loved that staircase.  They were stained wood, but the had carpet going up the middle of them, which was nice because they were slippery or anything but they were always dusty.  It drove me crazy!  I was cleaning those things every other day.

[bestofour]

Maybe I need to look a pictures.  Now we have white risers, white pickets but the original wood stained rail.  I stripped and stained the hand rail myself because it was painted purple when we moved in.  I had every intention of painting it or staining it but the wood was is so pretty I just polyed it.  It is cracked though and if we fix up the stairs it will have to go.

I need to talk to our stair man I guess. 

[bestofour]

Well I thought we were decided on wood but tonight Johnny asked why I decided not to use wrought iron.  He likes the wrought  iron so I'm thinking again.

[Dianna]

Johnny is the stair man?

[bestofour]

No, Johnny is my husband Dianna.  Remember?

[Dianna]

I need to talk to our stair man I guess.  

Well I thought we were decided on wood but tonight Johnny asked why I decided not to use wrought iron.  He likes the wrought  iron so I'm thinking again.

Hmmm. I wonder why?

I figured it must be on his "honey-do" list...

[bestofour]

The stairman came last night and we're going with wrought iron.  He seems to think he can get the stairs redone before Christmas.  I'm so excited.  I've wanted to refinish them for years.  So now I need to take a survey?

What color is everyone's living room or living area?

[Jessica]

We have a very neutral living room.  The walls are a tan color (I believe the paint color was called brown bread) and then we have burgundy and green accents throughout with chocolate brown furniture.

I am excited for you!  It is always nice getting that kind of stuff done.  We need before and after pics.

[barleychown]

I'll second the pics request. 

Our living room is mocha, with a chocolate accent wall, sage green couches, and some deep reds in pictures and such. I'm working towards a fire theme, but collecting old black and white photos takes time. All the trim is white.

[bestofour]

I'll take pictures.  I think it's the stairway that was built with the house in 1928.  It's narrow and the steps are pine.  The banister was painted purple when we moved in.  I stripped it and wanted to keep it since it's original but it's cracked and I'm sick of it.  So much for history.  I can't figure out why it costs more to restore than to totally redo.

[duh]

ok you asked for it lol.

The walls are wallboard with a linen like textured finish in an offwhite with brown specks streaked down in a semi striped pattern.  I know you need a picture for that one but I just can't get one that shows it well.  The rug is a forrest green and my furniture is blue and gold.  The woodwork is a mid brown.