So, fell down a bit of a rabbit hole last night, which is why I poofed around 4pm my time lol. Started with going up to the attic thinking about how I could use that space as a grow room. Come back down and get to googling, my manufactured trusses mean thats a no go. Hmph. Then I was reading about putting a floor into an attic and considering what a shit show the construction of this house is, I'm assuming that's a no go as well. Ah well. Then I start knocking on walls, thinking about possibly taking the wall between my current grow closet and the linen closet down and walling off the linen closet door. Then I realized that would only be adding length, not depth, so again not really worth the effort. Somehow this got me watching videos of remodeling staircases so by the time hubby was heading home from work 6ish hours later I had taken the carpet, pad, and 5 billion staples off the first stair, sanded it down, and stained it the same Java color I'm planning on doing the architectural arch over the exterior of our front door. The dogs think its a black hole and refuse to step on it, and #1 told me this morning it was "more dangerous" if they fell. I told him that yes, it may *hurt* more if they fell, but that walking down the carpeted stairs in socks you actually have *less* traction (especially if that carpet is covered in dog hair, which is one of reasons I wanted to rip it out anyways since trying to balance myself and a vacuum on the stairs is a pain and a hazard of its own lol), which of course he had to test for himself. Once again I've come to find that yet another part of this house is held together with Liquid Nails, random handfuls of hardware, and rage. The Newel Post has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, since apparently cutting a hole for it in the bottom stair and screwing/nailing it from a bunch of random directions is so much easier than using a dowel screw or L brackets and moulding? And don't get me started on the amount of liquid nails holding the stupid carpet down. Good news is they did stair by stair instead of waterfall so I was able to get away with just messing with the one for now. Plan in my brain will be to replace the baluster spindles with wrought iron in a rubbed brass with shoes at their bases, repair/refinish/properly mount the Newel post (though I've yet to decide if I want to do so on the floor or the first stair, its on the floor currently but it could go either way and the stair may be easier), refinish and remount the hand rails (with new hardware to match), and I'll probably need to replace the bottom stair's riser and tread. I'll probably end up taking all of the treads off, or at least remove all the original fasteners, and replace them with new since the stairs currently creak and squeak something awful.
The door isn't finished yet but its just a matter of hubby installing the closer now and then slipping the glass panel in so that shouldn't take too long at all.