As with everything else in my life, my documentation of the remodeling project is a bit behind. A few months ago, I set about to restore the main staircase. The project began innocently enough – I was on the phone and I absently began chipping paint off the trim. I found beautiful, dark stained oak underneath the white paint.

For the next few weeks, I chipped away at the paint – I pulled this and that piece of trim off – I even sat with the heat gun from time to time. But I hadn’t really committed to the idea of restoring the entire staircase. With so much else to do around the house, it seemed like unnecessary complexity.

I walked past that staircase a thousand times. The loose paint was becoming scarce, yet the woodwork still looked like shit. So in a fit motivation and obsession, I pulled out the pry bar and the rubber mallet. My friend, Paul, asked me “why the hell did you do all that?” Well, my answer is “I’m a bit crazy, and I bought an old house – why would I want it to look like a Home Depot rehab?” He answered , “yeah, you gotta do it, don’t cha’?”

Yep. I sure do. Here’s a video documenting the restoration and reassembly of the staircase. There are definitely some major omissions is the video (“and then some magic happens” moments). If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line here or at my blip.tv site, homedespairs.blip.tv.