Staircase - Before and After

We just underwent our first remodeling project. What a treat! 3 weeks of the house being in disarray. But we took our staircase from this:

And changed it to this:

We are thrilled at how it turned out! Thanks to Hardwood Creations, we now have an amazingly beautiful and updated staircase in our 25 year old home!

Yay! Now we can move on to the 8 million other things we want to do to our house...ugh! All in due time, I suppose. As I have been told many times, "Rome was not built in a day."

And since our staircase wasn't built in a day, here are some images along the way:

When looking back on this project, there are definitely a couple of things I am glad that we did, and there are some things I wish we would have done:

1. Get at least 3 bids on any home improvement project (Hardwood Creations was actually the last estimate we received, and we are very happy with the results)
2. Move out or take a vacation (if you can) during the process. Being without a staircase throughout the day was especially hard with kids, and in hindsight, we would have been better off staying at a hotel or with family for a few nights
3. Create a priority list of jobs to be done in your house/Always do flooring last - I desperately want to change the flooring, but knew that this project had to be done first because of the demolition and paint factor (a little bit of stain did get on our carpet, which I really don't care about since the carpet is old. But if it were brand new flooring, I would not be happy!)
4. Keep a close eye of what is going on, and speak up if you notice something you weren't expecting; a home improvement project isn't a surprise party. You should know everything that is going on it your house.
5. Enjoy! I am still having a tough time with this one because I am trying to make sure the kids don't somehow damage our beautiful staircase. But I do certainly appreciate how wonderful it looks

Now we just have to wait for our money tree to grow tall enough for our next project: the kitchen cabinets. Fun! Fun!