New Stairs - Day 6

This was a fun day.  This is the day that the "impossible" stairs were created.  This is the day that we were vindicated in asking the stair company to install the stairs because the flooring guys were clearly incompetent.

I started the day off grabbing some extra images of the previous work.  The beautiful work that Travis did laying the stairs.  You can't see it here, but he even managed to maintain the varied length pattern of the wood flooring in the stair treads.  It's really great work.

But this little beauty made our hassle worth while.  You see how the tread wraps around that edge and returns back into it?  That's how it is supposed to be.  That is what the other guy said was impossible.  His exact words were that the flooring piece would be "too small to return" so he was just going to chop it off straight at the riser.  What?!?!?!?  We aren't experts (more so now, maybe) but we knew that wasn't right.  So we fired him.  I can honestly tell you that I have been feeling a little better every day knowing his mistakes aren't going to haunt us.  And this little, beautiful detail will make me happy for a long time to come.

Oh, and each of the stairs in the second run has one.  So that's a lot of impossible work that Travis is doing.  I think one of my favorite things about Travis is that he is humble.  The other guy was so arrogant and clearly not very good or willing to try and problem solve.  He just wanted to get in and out, not caring about doing a good job or not, which made us dislike him even more.  Travis, on the other hand, would never be so narcissistic as to say that a mistake of his was someone else's fault or couldn't be fixed.  He would never let it get that far.  He would see a potential problem a mile out and start trying to find a way to fix it.  Arrogance just proves that there is a lot you don't know but aren't willing to learn.

And here it is.  The floor on the stairs with all the pieces in place.  Not complete, per se, because we still have the staining to do on the custom nosing, but it's really lovely.  And sturdy.  And straight.  And level.

Under the apron and the now completed custom nosing to finished nosing transition there is a finishing piece.  (I was happy with it just as an apron, so seeing this piece made me really happy!)

The edges of the stairs, where there is a gap between the riser and the apron on the stringer now has a little finishing piece as well.  Travis was telling us that flooring guys never do stuff like this.  They just throw some caulk in there and call it quits.  They also wouldn't have used the MDF for the risers, but some sort of other wood that is really hard to repair if it gets dinged. 

The pretty intersection where the apron and the skirt meet as you round the landings.  This one is a pretty standard miter, though well done.

This one, however, is more of a trademark of Travis.  Most guys won't cut this crazy miter (which ends up being something like 117 degrees) because you have to hold it out away from the saw and your fingers get really, really close to the blade.  Most guys (even good stair guys) will have the apron and skirt meet up in a straight down orientation.  So it would come in from the apron, have a 90 turn, and then turn again into the skirt.  I think this looks incredibly elegant.  And I watched him cut it, so I am also very impressed with the level of difficulty of my staircase.  (If only there were stair Olympics . . .)

This is another tricky one.  It ends up being a sort of three dimensional miter, because it has to be cut at two angles at once.  Since that it impossible (I actually trust Travis when he says something is impossible) he cuts it as close as he can and then sands the majolies out of it until it is nice and smooth.  Smooth move, Travis.  Smooth move.