Most economical = carpet. After that, a solid finish (wood, cork, vinyl, tile, stone, etc) will require all the extras. Painted stairs will work...with plenty of elbow grease and with the FULL UNDERSTANDING the paint will wear/chip/"patina" inside of a few years. There are ways to lay a runner on the stairs and then trim out the edges of the tread/riser with wood-looking stuff. This will cut the cost in half of what I mention above. The other option is to place the runner and PAINT out the edges....creating a faux-painted-wood look which could be very handsome yet extremely practical. Notice how carpet keeps on coming up again and again? Yah. There's a reason for that. Those are builder grades stairs made for carpet.

We added the section behind the house, a dining /family room, 2 yrs ago. Had remove old stairs to build out. temporarily closed them off until we rebuild the deck. Would like to increase back area for cookouts & seating. I'm hoping to narrow the width on side of house to 8', matching the width of front deck. Hubby wants long stairway on far right end of back deck. To link path from garage concrete to upper level entry door. Our driveway circles around to back of house so he wants this to be the main entry. I can see the practicality of his plan but I keep toying with the idea of adding a corner stair with split stairs, in both directions. I would be so grateful for any experienced advice you knowledgeable people can offer! The other question is how can we possibly add a portico over the front porch, considering our roof line as well as the awkward angle of the front door?? I welcome any ideas. Thank you.

Yardvaark-I do not have a plan or drawing available. I've submitted a few more photos to give you a better idea of the backyard. Here's a view from the other side of the house coming off the driveway and the rest of the photos are what you'd see walking down to the back then facing the house. Hope these in addition to my first pics helps give a better idea. We are mostly concerned about improving the stairs and connecting it with the patio area and just overall how to make that transition look good with those two areas which no longer have trees. The patio doesn't necessarily need to be bigger, but it seems small in comparison to the deck area. For example when we have friends over to eat on the deck and move down to the patio, space seems a little tight, but that could be a furniture/chair issue. Thanks for your thoughts.

I would just do a much larger than what you have for sure I much prefer decks to patios . We just covered our patio with a deck and made it so that it works with the rest of the deck around our house and I love it it seems so much bigger than the patio not sure why. Then just have the steps run all along one side with nice railing . Make the deck large enough to have everything on the deck so bigger is better