Aaand we have a staircase! This project was actually completed in December but I just never posted it.

Here are the progress pictures:

How the stairs looked when we took possession:



Still there after we removed the drywall:


The spiral staircase is finally gone! When we removed it we found out it was only secured by two tiny bolts!:


Getting ready for the new staircase. We also flipped the basement stairs so they lead down from the kitchen instead of by the door:


The plan was to bring the stairs down the wall as far as we could and then add a landing to bring them out the rest of the way. We quickly found out that we didn't have enough space to bring them down the wall. Between the door on the side of the house and the door behind the basement, adding stairs there would have been impossible. So we did the only thing we could do:


We built a staircase in the middle of the room. You should have been there for that conversation! The truth is, everyone hates that the stairs had to be in the center of the living room, but that was the only way it could have been done.  At least it's a pretty staircase:




This was one of those things that didn't quite turn out as we hoped, but we made the best of a bad situation.

Also, can we talk about how the broom keeps photobombing?!