staircase before (above). staircase after (below).
loft before (above). loft after (below).
when we first bought little green, the stairs to our master bedroom consisted of what we called a ‘sladder’ (staircase/ladder). because they were so steep and narrow and without a railing, we limited our trips up into our bedroom. whatever we needed for that day, we made sure that we would bring it down in the morning. it was always an adventure getting up in the middle of the night, and more than once our feet would slip and we’d have a small heart attack as we would grab onto the wall for support! are you surprised that these stairs (and our roof) did not pass our home inspection? we weren’t!
now the construction of our stairs was another matter entirely. when we finally did find workers to do the job, they assured us that it would only take two weeks. four months later, and nowhere near completion, we fired the contractors and got the help of my brother to finish the job. thank goodness for handy family members! he taught us how to add, mud, and patch drywall, install baseboards and trim, and build a railing. we gained about 4 feet of wall space, a closet, a unique landing, a longer and wider staircase, and a bigger opening to our loft. the end result is nowhere near what we originally wanted, but i love it just the same.
do you have any construction horror stories that you would like to share?
Hello, Scarlett Blog 
the north face stockholm
/ 12/01/2013Hello, i think that i saw you visited my website thus i came to “return
the favor”.I am trying to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok
to use some of your ideas!!
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sf
/ 11/21/2013wonderful improvement and more storage space! nice!
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hello scarlett
/ 11/22/2013thank you!!! :-)))
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Joanne S
/ 11/21/2013Wow, what a transformation! How neat: you also gained organization AND storage. You all did a very fine job.
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hello scarlett
/ 11/22/2013thank you! again, we were initially going to put an office under the staircase (found the idea on pinterest). however, the contractors made it much smaller than they said it would be, as well as the openings themselves. so, it became our new closet.
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Michelle @ The Wardrobe Update
/ 11/21/2013Wow, what a difference it’s made! I love that you’ve cleverly used the under-stair area for storage without closing it off completely – it looks great.
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hello scarlett
/ 11/22/2013that is one of the aspects that we had to compromise on. initially, the openings were supposed to be equal size in width, and would be closed off with vintage barn doors. we found two doors that were perfect for the job, but the contractors cut them so incorrectly that they no longer fit! once we fired them, we decided to pass on the doors. however, with the trim work, i think that it looks like we never planned on doors to begin with. ;-)
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Becca
/ 11/21/2013This looks great! A great improvement over the sladder!
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hello scarlett
/ 11/22/2013isn’t it though? thanks! :-)
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