Stairwell Reveal – the last unfinished space is DONE!

This is feeling a little bitter sweet for me as this was the last completely unfinished space since I started on this journey with my home 11 years ago. (I started the renovation in the spring of 2014 and moved in the summer of 2015.) This stairwell needed to be drywalled, taped and mudded, painted and trimmed out. I finished it over the months after one of my nephews came over to help me hang the sheet rock. It was a slog, but, eventually, I got through it.

Getting to move on to other projects here from finally finishing the drywall got me finally excited about seeing this space finished again.

I painted out the stairs and side walls and found these cute carpet treads for each of the steps.

I added the treads entirely for traction but what the sound dampening did for this space was huge. Before, even without shoes on, you sounded like a horse clomping downstairs throughout the whole house and that introduction to the basement left a cold warehouse unfinished vibe.

Lodi and I like them so much we’ve discussed purchasing some for the steps up to our master as well but we’re gonna see how long these hold up.

I made a new handrail out of galvanized pipe and then added motion sensor lights to make the entire space a lot safer.

The lights are super sensitive, amazingly bright and only stay on briefly so I expect their batteries to last a long time. (They’re so bright in fact that I rarely even turn on the overhead light now when I need to run downstairs for something.)

A few other additions was blackout curtains for the door and a new rug at the landing. We used this as our entry throughout this last cold winter so we could keep our old front door buttoned up from the wind.

I also painted the door black to match the rest of our doors.

I also need to paint the outside of the door black but I need some better weather for that!

The overhead light was improved with the changing out of the regular incandescent bulb with a super bright LED. I may still install an actual light fixture there eventually but for now this works great.

In all honesty the stairwell could be better “finished” with around 8 more sticks of 1×4 trim. Every little bit of space counts in a stairwell though and I’m using the need to get more furniture down (or out of) here as an excuse to not add any more trim yet.

The trim I’m talking about in particular would be over the separation between the white, sheet rocked walls and the black, concrete stair walls which we would definitely bang into bringing furniture up or down.

I think it still looks good without it so I’m probably just being nit picky or its just such a vast improvement from what it was that it doesn’t bother me that much.

From when we redecorated our living room one of the two old windows I had spray painted with mirrored birds needed a new home.

I had a feeling it might work here and I was right, though it could be a little bigger, it definitely makes the space feel more open!

I want to somehow add “more” to these big blank walls but I fear it will make the space feel darker or tight again and that’s the last thing that I want so I think this “less is more” approach is going to stick for awhile.

Over the years we’ve all experience the whip lash when we finally hit the end of a long job. When you’re nose to the grindstone for so long its always a real surprise when you get there.

Finishing this space was definitely like that for me.

There was a time when completing this entire house was my number one priority but after getting our main living spaces complete the urgency did fade a bit and I’d just been over here plucking away at it for the last decade.

This feels really good guys.

We all know a house is never done so I’m certainly not “finished” but not having any more sheet rock to hang in my future is definitely something to celebrate!