And so it begins...

So we've started the stairs!! When Mom got here on Thursday she agreed we needed to start first thing Friday- so we did. Well- we tried. We got sidetracked and went for a manicure first. For the record- Shellac manicures last through DIY work extremely well.

SATURDAY we got going. We head to Home Depot with a list and a mission: get all the supplies for the stairs, and to paint the main area of the house. We succeeded.

But this post is about the stairs.

We went all over Home Depot gathering our loot. And this is what we ended up with. All the supplies (not including tools) cost approximately 195$.

Dry Sheathing for the actual treatment (found in the roofing aisle.)
A big gallon bucket
A caulking gun
PL400 glue in a caulk tube
MinWax Oil-Modified Water Based Poly
Smooth Finishing Nails
MinWax wood stain in Special Walnut (quart size)
3 Litres of Lepage White Glue (any brand will do.)
Hemlock Door & Window casing moulding- 1 1/2 inch wide
2 Dollar Store 3 inch paint brushes (these were actually purchased at Dollarama.)

Then we came home and started tearing the stairs apart. We already knew the rubber nosings were going to come off easily, and I'd already ripped off all the carpet on the stringers. So next step was to try the lino. This was the moment of truth- but as you already know, it came up easily!

That black stuff is leveling compound the contractor who put the lino in must have used to make sure the stairs were flat. They'd also put down new press board on each tread- which was great- it gave us a flat, level, smooth surface to work on. Perfect. So once one tread was off, we went to town.

That's my Mom ripping lino up. Word of caution: when doing anything that requires force- wear safety glasses!! We almost took a few eyes out. Seriously, they're worth it. Wear em.

After an hour or so the stairs looked like this:

Notice we left every second tread lino'd. That was just for connivence sake- we needed to be able to get up and down. Also notice we'd taken all the trim off. Do this before you pull up your carpet/lino/whatever- it makes a huge mess otherwise.

After that we were tired and called it in for the evening- we were tired!! Today was when the real fun started...