And then she left without her laptop

If you have read any of Stephanie's previous posts, you will know that she is on a girls weekend in Portland. When she was leaving, I asked if she had her laptop, amazingly she said "No, I don't need it. You can post." I'll see how she is after 2 days without the internet.

I'm going to sort of do a Manly Post with a little 'how-to-get-in-good-with-the-wife' tossed in for good measure.

About 5 years ago when our dishwasher barfed its contents onto the kitchen floor, it ruined our linoleum (oh no!) and we upgraded the entire downstairs (minus the tile I had already put down) to hardwood. When we had the flooring quoted, we also had them quote the stairs. The stairs would have cost as much as the entire lower floor! Anyhoo, the stairs stayed carpet.

We Spencers are lazy when it comes to taking off our shoes and therefore carpet dies a slow, dingy death in our home. Our cat loves to sit on the landing half way up our stairs and hack up a hairball or two. These situations have combined to breed a certain hatred on Stephanie's behalf for the carpet on our stairs.

Now, what does a Man do when they have laid off %25 of the engineers at work, your project looks shaky and the economy has taken the proverbial crap? That's right, tear up functioning stairs to install full hardwood treads and risers. I know you are saying "Oh, I'm sure Stu has installed stairs before and this should be fine." You would be wrong dear reader, I'm just going for it. I am no home improvement virgin though and this is an excuse to buy a new 12" compound sliding mitre saw:

(If you don't love tools, find someone in your house that does, they will appreciate it)

So right now I have torn up the carpet, removed the old treads and risers, installed the new underlayment treads and removed all the crap that the contractors stuff in that void under your stairs:

All of that plastic and some of the wood was stuffed in there. The rest is the old stairs.

Here is the current state of the stairs:

Waiting for skirt boards and new hardwood.

Now, in case you don't think this is enough kissing up to the wife, I've done laundry, cleaned the kitchen, shuttled kids to and fro, and delivered Pampered Chef packages. If it is not obvious, I am hoping to get something naughty out of all this. Don't judge. We all pay for it one way or another...

-Stu

PS: To everyone that I used to comment regularly on their blog; work has been crazy with a quarter of us gone, but the same work to do, I have been severely limited in my comment making time.