stairway to heaven

When we moved into our house last year we were thrilled to have a basement, but the means to get there were a bit scary. We had a small door off the front hall next to the kitchen that lead to a very narrow wooden open stair and on the other side of it (that's right you had to step over the stair) was our "pantry". So Kris and I started demolition of these dangerous stairs in hopes of some new, safer more stylish ones. After I drew up my plan for the best way to reconfigure the stair, we needed the help of some professionals. Our friends Ryan and Bert of New Earth spent a few days at our house. First was to demo the rest of the pantry area and remove the floor boards (which we saved to relay as part of the extended kitchen project) and open up the space under the existing first floor stair, for the head room of the new basement stair.

After the guys did all the demo (which they saved as much to re use as could be) the new stair construction began. After Bert and Ryan would leave for the day, Kris and I would demo the next stage of the project, so this was when we made the opening for the new stair next to the existing one. We removed the lath and plaster and the guys cut our the studs and headed off the opening the next day. They completed construction of the stairs on the third day working at the house. And they were beautiful!In between the guys completing the stairs and me painting and finishing them, Kris' father came for a visit and helped us (built for us) a new stud wall along the left side of the stair. Now we have a new wall that gave 5 more feet to the kitchen and encloses the basement stairs. Then I painted the risers a glossy taupe (for cleaning) and stained the treads to match the existing hardwood floors.