In June Marie and I hired two local retired carpenters to build our interior staircases, the work to begin in July and be finished by the first week or so of August. Felix, in his early seventies has built stairs all his life and Jacques in his mid 60s tagged along as the 'helper'. After several designs and choices of wood - we ended up with birch - we contracted the wood out to a local mill a few miles down the road, Entreprise CLP, owner François Carrier, and then two trips in the Ram to bring home the finished product. But before work could begin I had to ensure the walls in the basement and up to the mezzanine were finished and Marie had to do some serious wiring. Drywall went up in the basement and I cut, stained and installed the rest of the wood panels up to the master bedroom. Once the basement stairs were finished we realized the only way to control the huge amount of dust, mostly from sanding, was to enclose the work area in hanging plastic sheets. This helped tremendously and kept the majority of the fine particles inside the 'bubble'. Marie wanted floating stairs to go to the mezzanine - no risers between the treads and no stringers on either side like the basement stairs - to keep the opened feeling of the main level. We are both very pleased with the results. Now the hard part is done we have to think about what style of banister we will be adding. Next week we will be ready to apply stain which will match the dark 'Texas Brown' of the wood floor - yet to be laid! gws
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| putting up drywall in basement where stairs will go |
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| first load of finished birch to be cut |
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| Felix & Jacques cutting in basement |
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| after two days.. |
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| finished stairs from basement to main floor |
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| wrapping up living room with plastic |
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| building the stair frame from main floor to mezzanine |
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| the main beam of the floating stairway |
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| lunch time! |
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| Felix taking a break, the stairs almost finished |
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| view of finished stairs from mezzanine |
