The Reno Marathon, Part 2

Posted on Thursday 22 February 2007 at 01:19

Do you have a stairing problem? We did, for quite some time. It began with the concrete floor -- the old stairs went bye-bye. Then even the hole got closed over as we moved walls around in the kitchen and dining room. Since our arrival at this place, I've wanted to open them up to each other, but there's been this dagnabbitish stairwell, enclosed, right smack in the middle of everything.

Dave and his sturdy saw fixed that for me.

At this point, the dining room was still our "TV room." We hauled the TV outa there, leaving a blank wall. This hole used to be a recessed shelf. The kids had the joy of punching out the drywall that had covered it in. Then they went to sit on the old couch and watch "Dad TV."

Dave went to town, and as you can see, the end result was no stairwell to be found anywhere. Dave is standing on it. It stayed that way for awhile. We missed a water meter reading because I couldn't get down to the basement to do it. The kids enjoyed jumping on the plywood and making it thunder.

Then we moved on. Above, you see a wall with a white-board on it, over at the far left. That used to be an exterior wall, until the previous owner butted a second bungalow up against it. If you look close, you can see a fridge right behind Dave. Between the fridge and the white-board ran an oddly-designed, narrow set of three steps down to the second bungalow, or "south house" as we call it.

The white-board and the wall behind it came down. Concrete board and all. This is the view from the other side, where we ripped out a 5x5 foot teeny bathroom that couldn't be salvaged -- the old pipes had rusted right through.

We nearly died when we went to purchase measly paint-grade railing for it. That has not been installed yet, we're still getting over what would have happened if we'd wanted oak railing. However, the weird narrow stairs between houses have been replaced.

I remain amazed at how much garbage a small project like a set of stairs can generate. We haven't even finished tearing out the old wall of the north house at the top of this run. There is just garbage everywhere after one of these "little" efforts. I'm starting to get frustrated with the musical furniture again -- the whole basement is in upheaval right now, which I'll save for next time.

However, some exciting things have been happening. We've been building a child pen down there. And things are shifting to the point where I'm going to begin taking the leading role. Dave does not do finishing work.

Well Cat........

Posted by Darcy on Tuesday 27 February 2007 at 03:21 - Link

That certainly does not look like a "small project" to me! It looks like you're making great improvements although I hope the "child pen" you're making in the basement is simply your way of saying bedroom :)>. Good luck with that finish work!