Stair Progress: Treads Arrived

Well, Matt had his surgery on Monday. As we were expecting/hoping, his ACL was replaced. Although it is a longer recovery (boo), it will leave him with the strongest knee he can have (yay). So while he is camped out on the couch recovering, I will keep plugging away on these stairs. This weekend I cut the noses off of the upper steps, say hello to Decetive Tubbs.

 

 

I mentioned that last week I though one or two of my treads might split when I payed them out, and I was right! I love it when that happens. Being right that is, not breaking stuff that I'll have to replace. Actually only one of them actually split in two, the other one was still in tact-ish, but the cracks went all the way to the back so I replaced it anyway. Here's the new ugly treads in place.

 

 

While cutting the noses off I also shortened the width of the steps a little too. Some of them stuck out over the edge of the drywall a little, and I've decided I want to put another skirt on this edge under the pretty risers. I'm not exactly sure what that process will look like, but I'll get it figured out.

 

 

This was all done on Sunday, and on Monday (surgery day) I got an email from Home Depot that the treads I ordered had arrived! When I opened them I was so pleased, but let me tell you why. See, at first we were going to order these oak treads for the low price of $32 a piece. Multiply that by 12 and stairs get expensive quick! Then one day after a little prodding from Matt, I searched the HD website to see if there was anything cheaper. Luck would have it that they have a builder grade version that comes in two different sizes! Since we have two sections I could order these 36" treads ($18) for the bottom half, and the 48" treads ($21) for the top half. That's a savings of $150!

 

 

Ok, before I get off track let me tell you the other reason we went with the builder grade versions. Reviews! Of the reviews I read, most of them mentioned ordering a few extras to account for the builder grade-yness (aka imperfections). Most of the reviewers said there were some imperfections, however most of the treads had one side that was pretty much perfect. I ended up ordering 7 with the intention of returning the least desirable one. In the picture above I have all of the ones we are keeping with their pretty sides turned out. Below I snapped a detail shot of each boards ugliness. Some were as simple as some darker grain, the second one is particularly ugly (but the other side was perfect) and there were some little holes from what I can only assume were bugs, and a scratch here in there.

 

 

All in all I am pretty happy with these treads, and saving a little mulah in the process. Oh, and speaking of saving mulah, Sherwin Williams is having a 40% off sale on paints and stains, which is where we'll get our stain color matched to our wood floors. Perfect timing, if you ask me.

 

Nikki Kelly

 

(This post was sponsored by neither Home Depot nor Sherwin Williams, but by Matt and myself)