A stair makeover.

So I have mentioned roughly 52 times that our dogs are ruining the carpets. Specifically on the stairs. Our stairs have a turn in them and have 4 half landings and our stinkerific hound dog loves to sleep on the first landing. And often the boxer is right above him on the next landing. So not only does it make for treacherous terrain as one comes up or down the stairs--since they don't move as you gingerly step between their paws or that perfect little gap under their chin, it also makes for a stinky stairwell and some funk-nasty dirty dog carpets. After trying to mask the smell with various spritz's of fragarence we finally decided enough was enough. I convinced Robert that tackling the project was indeed doable. And yesterday--I had had enough and got busy on the stairs. First off let me just say that my choice of days to start a project is sub-par. We have had guests all weekend and therefor sheets to wash, towels to wash, and kids to watch. So yesterday was not really the best day to jump up and decide to start ripping out carpet. Though really with 4 kids there never is a "best day". So arming myself with a half dozen blog posts touting that this was in fact doable and also doable for relatively little cash flow. I busted out the brute strength I keep hidden under my motherly physique and yanked and pulled and tugged and grunted and groaned and managed to get every last bit of carpet ripped off that stinky stair case. I discovered that A)carpet is suprisingly dusty and B)the flooring under the carpet on the stairs is not crummy old ply wood but in fact real wood. Like toss some stain on it and call it a day wood flooring. Can I get a Holla! Cause Holla! First off I had no intention of doing the whole "new tread" thing. My plan was to slap some paint on those bad boys and sing praises to the makers of paint and that was that. But now.  Now I have 2 options pick out some stain OR paint. And also? I don't need to sand a thing because there wasn't a drop of glue under that pad so again Holla! So we are finishing up the first portion of the great stinky stair redo. Right now I have passed the needle nose pliers over to Robert and am requesting that he finishes up yanking out the 4961 staples that were holding the carpet in place. My hands are calling it quits and really wishing I had thought to toss on some gloves. Blisters and scrapes and a wee bit sore. So here's where we are. Carpet and carpet pad is gone. Carpet tack strips are 100% gone and staples are 50% gone. Next step is vacuum the mess again and again and again. Wash it all down and then fill in the holes and then decide the next step. Paint or stain? I am thinking stain the treads and paint the risers. We will also repaint the molding that goes up the staircase and the spindles and what not at the top. Of course in doing that we will also have to do the same for the railing over the foyer area as well. So for some pictures eh? So I took the before picture with my big camera and the rest with my cell phone...but you get a general idea of what we are working with here...

This is the first portion of the steps...not too bad looking and I can't show you the landing properly it just doesn't show the dirt in the picture....and if I had smell-a-vision I would pass that thru too but alas...

 Kitty girl checking things out...

 This guy was a big helper...seriously he pulled up several of the tack strips...(that's Zachary)

Now onto...pulling staples....