The Staircase! Done... Well Almost!

As Some of you know, my husband bought me an old house to restore, we have been SO busy, but we are finally moving in, and I finally have a little time to share the pictures with you. I hope I can inspire some of you to take on a big project or two!

The first picture is the entrance into the master bedroom, we didn't know we were going to be covering it up with a staircase. We had no idea when we bought the house that the attic was so huge,,,, I can't wait to finish it!

We also opened up the doorway into the kitchen, found a chimney, so I HAD to expose the brick.. Obviously!  And we also got extremely lucky and found hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor! 

(Those are My wonderful cousins guiding us through the stair building)

1 We decided to add the stairs because of the size of our attic to add square footage to our home... WARNING: When you see that the roof is being supported like it is in the above attic picture, you have to reinforce EVERY one of the trusses with at least a 2X8!

-We also have to reinforce all the floor joists with 2X10's! = at LEAST $2,500.00 just in reinforcing! 

2 Staircases are tricky! You need to have someone that is experienced help guide you through.

 They will know the size of hole to cut in your ceiling according to the hight of your ceiling and how many stairs you'll need.

 They will guide you on how to frame the wall to support the stairs 

And they will help you cut the stringers (the supports for the treads)

3 Budget about $400 to $450 for lumber (that's doing it MY way) It just goes up from there!

   I bought regular 2X10's (which saved $$) to use for the stair tread, I wanted it rustic and paintable! 

I used pre-primed mdf for the faces. 

And if you want skirt-board (the white trim that runs up the wall) You have to go to a lumber yard, the box stores don't sell it in that width or length. It's Pre-primed mdf measuring 12inX16ft - approx $40.00 each! 

~When we add the railing I will give a play by play for that as well~

4 Little bonus... When you build stairs, in a way you are building storage! I suggested to open up the back of the stairs and build a pantry! Now I have more much-needed storage in my kitchen!

Lots and Lots of hours of hard labor, and we did most of it ourselves. 

I still can't believe it!

      DONE!!!! I can't believe it!!!

Well, Almost... I need to paint a runner down my stairs (maybe) and do some type of railing of course, oh and I need to decide what to do with that back wall...hmmm
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