A staircase in the entry was a selling point for Cassity, but the builder basic quality left much to be desired. She decided to make the steps worthy of their prime location. Check out the results:
From Cassity:
Having a staircase in our entry was one of the features I liked about our new house, but the builder grade finishes, worn carpet and cramped entry really bothered me. I decided to take matters into my own hands one day and pulled up a corner of the carpet, only to be greatly disappointed by the layers of plaster, huge gaps on the edges, and the fact that they just used structural lumber instead of nice stair treads. But since we love a challenge we decided to try to update it anyway.
We reused almost 90% of the stairs, keeping the budget under $150 for the whole transformation, although the work was pretty involved to fix all the issues we found! Looking back it was worth every second, to get the transformation that we did!
For more photos and details, check out Cassity's blog, Remodelaholic.
Thanks, Cassity!
Have your own Before & After project you'd like to share with the editors? Submit it here.
(Images: Remodelaholic)
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150 dollars?!?!?! WELL DONE!
Beautiful!
$150.... I'm almost not sure I believe it. At the very least, it was over $150 if you include all the surrounding changes that highlighted the new stairs (new paint, fresh new flooring, etc.) Still, VERY WELL DONE.
Wow! What a difference. Well done!
I think you just raise your house value by $$$. I love it!
wow. tremendous!
Who knew that a staircase when you walk in the house is a selling point? Why? That is something that never would have entered my mind.
I wish they itemized what work was actually done for $150. Did they replace the treads? Stain them? They obviously put in new railings, and widened the staircase that the bottom two stairs. I am confused and wish the pictures were the same angle.
Aaah. The stairs can breathe! Beautiful!
But most importantly, what does the cat think?
Exactly, Michael W. I love how the cat's giving the photographer the cold shoulder in the 1st pic. I wanted to see his face in the 2nd pic!
Back to on topic, beautiful transformation.
$150? I'll give you double that to come and do my stairs!
Thorndale, it may not have a full budget breakdown, but as the original AT post says, "[f]or more photos and details, check out Cassity's blog, Remodelaholic."
One click after the initial link got me here:
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2013/02/budget-stair-remodel-wood-to-carpet-tread-makeover/
where there are lots of pictures from different angles. Looks like it was part of a bigger remodel process of the living room too, so they probably had materials around, and the blogger's husband is pretty handy, so the labour was 'free'.
Wow! I'm dumbstruck. :)
Nice work!!!!
Fantastic. So much more modern.
Wow, kudos to you!
Stunning and so impressive for the budget especially. You are a wizard!
Amazing!
Fantastic.
Interesting how moving the ends of the railings up two steps really makes their entryway seem bigger, even though the stairs themselves are still there.
Really nice, I meant to add!
Just beautiful.
That was my thought, Michael W.: Where's the "after" cat?
$150... looks more like $500 to me... Stairs are super expensive. Great job!
I also think the "after" is beautiful. What gorgeous wood!
The cat is missing because he slipped down the varnished stairs one too many times.Wood is beautiful, but slippery for stairs. Even more dangerous when you remove the hand rail near the bottom steps. Beautiful, but not always practical.
Astounding!!!
Now THAT's an impressive staircase. The $150 is for materials, not for the many gallons of Acme Elbow Grease that had to be purchased. I do have to admit that shiny wood stairs are beautiful, you can't use them in stocking feet (the stair treads were a bit hard on this writers bum after said feet want to take more than one step at a time).
I cannot stop going from the before to the after photo. how beautiful
Agreed! I think the only things they included in the price of the remodel were the cost of 2 stair treads, new risers, wood for newel posts and expanding the bottom 2 stairs, stain and maybe paint? Although it's great that they had the tools, time and technical skills to do all the work themeslves, I wish things like this would come with the disclaimer of "$150 plus x tools and x amount of time!"
Lovely, lovely, lovely!
Really impressive; whatever the cost. But, I hope that 'blue' at the top is artwork & not the wall. It's really NOT working for me. Great staircase upgrde.
Wow! I would love to know the cost of the project, though.
ashley erin mayer
I'm sure the cat was a big help. :)
He looks like he might have directed the whole renovation? :)
This is fantastic.
As far as I'm concerned they added thousands to the resale value with this, Great Job
Wow! I've got a similar staircase in my entryway that I've been DYING to redo just like yours but I've been worried about $$$. SO JEALOUS you completed this for $150. I'm going to start looking into options right this second! Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Love it! This gives me so much hope in case we find ourselves in a newer/blander home in the future. I love the character of our 1940's tudor, but it's small and the age worries my husband in case of possible kiddos...
Thanks Trig. That was fun to look at. Made me realize that the cost of supplies pale in comparison to the amount of detailed work that went into this.
WTF, $150??? It looks beautiful. Any amount of labor would be worth that kind of savings. I can't freakin' believe the skills the would be required to make that kind of dramatic change for a price nearly anyone can afford.
Well done. And for only $150. I'm impressed.
Beautiful! We also have wooden stairs, but remember - shoes or bare feet only, and be careful with wet bare feet.
KFair + 1. Truly flipping amazing job.
Looks beautiful, what I transformation. I love the open steps at the bottom. My only suggestion is to caulk the pillar thing on the right.
Stunning!
Not a fan of the bathroom tile on the upper part of the wall, but I absolutely LOVE the stairs!!
The new stairs are awesome but need the cat to approve!
The stairs look beautiful. However they wouldn't be practical for someone elderly or someone like me with arthritis, who needs to hang onto a railing to make it up even the first step. Also I would think the corner of the stair that juts out would be easy to trip over or stub your toe on.
Sorry for being a sour puss!
Nice stairs, but I agree with BlueWillow. I don't think they're to code.
a giant improvement!
There is a difference between a handrail and a guardrail. I would stop the top cap of the guardrail at the wall, and then add a graceful wrought-iron handrail all the way down the stair well to the bottom treads. Have it be all artistic at the bottom, but sturdy and useful. I, too, have creaky knees and wobbly hips and need assistance from time to time.
The other thing about the stairs that looked a little odd was how small the tread overhang was - it's usually around 1", and here it appears to be 1/4".
Other than that - GORGEOUS! And a huge improvement.
Shut UP!
Holy wow. You are awesome!
So elegant and the best part is no more vacuuming the stair carpeting!!
Wow, what a great transformation.
totally classic
Five words: please come to my house!
Having just stripped, stained, refinished and painted my floors over the past four days, I can really appreciate this transformation. Excellent work!
It's like, I want to love this? But there are so many things going on. Sand colored walls + fresh white + visually complex architectural detailing + contrasting color handrail + very busy (tile?) upper hallway wall + wood texture/color + weirdly contrasting entry closet door. I think we can see the possibly sky blue paint in the living room from the entry as well? It just makes for a lot of visual clutter for me. With some tweaking to make it more cohesive (and a bit of caulk on the right column) it would be magnificent.
Gorgeous! And moving up the railing was an excellent idea as well.