The first time we ever looked at this place…the very very very first preliminary visit when I thought my hubby was out of his mind but I would appease him by going to see this cute country spot…the first thing I noticed were the stairs.  Let me explain….

Aside from all of the beauty of the yellow and orange, do you see that white door up there.  Yep, that one. Now just use your imagination and close that door with your eyes.  Are there any red flags?? Because let me tell you, there was for me:) If you haven’t figured it out yet, the door is hanging off of the floor about a foot…the magical floating door. Therefore when you close it, you can see the whole first step…can we say akward?? At least to me it was. My first thought was to just remove the door, but what you can’t see in the picture is how steep these stairs really are. Some may argue that I just wanted a pretty staircase…but I was fearing for my children’s lives…and maybe I wanted a pretty staircase…but it’s all for the CHILDREN!! :) :)

So, with that being said, something had to change.  We knew we wanted to take out a couple of walls in the kitchen to open it up a bit, so I asked Ry if we could just do the bottom half of the staircase open, so I could have two railings to decorate at Christmas:)  Oh so important!  But since he loves me so, and to this day he still does not take ownership over the open staircase…but it was all his idea:)  I was in Wisconsin and when I came back the stairs looked something like this…(okay, first like this..I want you to appreciate all the steps:) Ryan’s mom went to town in here getting rid of the plaster!!  Thanks Ronelle:)

And then when I came back they looked like this…

A completely open staircase!! (okay, that little Kynlee just made me smile with her nukky in her mouth like that…haven’t seen that in forever since she gave them all away to the little babies in the hospital:) What a cutie she is:) :)

Anyway, back to the stairs.  This little project and demand I had at the beginning of this endeavor, turned out to be a huge headache!!  And a big money pit as well.  We didn’t splurge in a lot of areas of the house, but this staircase ended up being one of them!  First of all for all of the supports we had to add to open up the walls, and then the wood and extras for the stairs.  We even had one experienced retired carpenter tell us he wouldn’t touch the staircase, it was a nightmare, but it will look great when it’s done…gee, thanks?!?

So, my brother-in-law came out a night to help put in the posts and Ryan’s dad Tim finished it out…amazing! Thanks Tim:)

Not bad huh??

Don’t mind the mud I still have to paint:) And the holes in the wood, they need to be filled:)

And here’s another sneak peek of before from upstairs…I must say that I was a little sad to part with this part of it:)

Isn’t that curved railing cute?? Except for the fact that it was about two feet tall and I felt like I was going to fall over the edge, but I still have it out in the barn. Waiting for the right opportunity to use it again:)

View from the bathroom.

And what I really love is that I can check up on the hoodlums while I am getting ready in the bathroom. Kinda handy!:)

And I just had to give a big shout out to this cute lady….

Isn’t she adorable?? I scored another deal from my sister on this one. It was in the showroom for $800!!! but the company went belly up..surprise?? and I got it for $75. Yay!! Did I mention I love good deals:)

So, what did we do to the stairs??  Well..everything:)  I would have loved to have wood stairs with a runner, but 2 reasons we didn’t.  1.)  That is way more expensive…and 2.)  My husband is practical (don’t you hate that!?!)  Carpet it comfortable and since the kiddos, and dog, live on the steps, carpet it was.  If I was doing carpet then I wanted a low-pile burber carpet so it wouldn’t show the wear and tear of feet as much.  I picked this diamond pattern carpet from The Home Depot, it was the Martha Stewart brand.  Ry wasn’t sure but I think I won him over in the end.  He’s such a good guy to let me pick..thanks honey!!

As for the rest of the stairs, I love white, but I wanted to do a stained railing to draw the eye up and tie in the floors.  I’m liking it.  And if I don’t in 5  years, it can always be painted:)  So in total I believe these stairs set us back at least $3000 with labor and material, ouch!  But they are the main focal point in our house and will be there forever.  I am so glad we did it:)

Happy Friday everyone!!!

The new open concept.