The stairs in our 1925 federal style home have defied every effort to be refinished. They are made from beautiful planks and boards of solid white oak. The gently sloping, carved rail floats atop a balustrade of sixty two petite, lovingly turned banisters. The stairs define the house. They sit at its center and welcome any guest who should chance to stop by and pass through the front door. They serve to create the overall impression of the house. They are an eyesore. They have been for more than a year.When we moved into the house nearly two years ago we spent a month pulling up old, 1970's shag carpet from every room. It was like a mad disease - carpeting in the 70's. Everyone infected felt the unyielding urge to rush out, purchase mounds of shag carpet that all looked as though a previous owner had been sick atop it, and then nail and staple it down atop their beautiful hardwood floors. A moment of thanks for their infection This crazy fad actually saved thousands of wood floors from twenty five years of use and abuse by all manner of dogs, cats, children, men in golf shoes and women in high heels. What we found after pulling up every scrap of putrescent carpet was a vast sea of beautiful wood. Wood that hadn't been refinished in fifty years, if ever. It was ghastly, but relatively unscathed and certainly salvageable. We set to refinishing every floor in the house ourselves - a task that took us a full month during which time we lived in an apartment. We saved the stairs for last. And last slowly turned into nearly two years. Now they're nearly complete, and we're six months away from leaving this house forever for a new life on the sea. But they are absolutely beautiful! Certainly worth the wait. For whatever amount of time we have left in the house before another family decides to buy it, we can walk up and down those fantastic stairs and enjoy every creakless moment gazing into their warm, honey, surface.
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