When you were considering staining it, I thought you were nuts (no offense). Not that it wouldn't look good, but it's sooooooo much work on something that looks perfectly fine as it is. Painting would be easier, but still quite a bit of work. And then there is the banister and the top landing - the paint will wear in those area and you will have an ongoing maintenance issue.

Honestly, I would think very carefully about this.

I don't know if this will help you or not, Sheesharee, but this is what we did with our stairs. I would like to have stained wood treads with a runner, but this fit our budget better during the build. We might tackle that down the road. Our banisters are stained, but they're so dark, they almost look painted (I wanted them a bit lighter, but they ended up this dark, and I just let it go). Hope it helps!

Graywings - Ha you're allowed to think I'm nuts. I wonder about myself at times. What if I used an oil based paint and protective coating? I'm not worried about the work involved in painting. I do like painting although I'm sure I'll be ready to take a break once I was done. Neither one of us even though the woodwork and don't do down the stairs much. Someday once kids arrive that may be a different story.

Maybe I shouldn't of said tread? I was talking about the two oak boards where the spindles attach into and at the top of the steps.

Hoosier - Very pretty! I also gave the paint a thought because I do want it so dark.

I'd leave it for now. I think once you have everything else in place, you will know what works/get to know your tastes even better . . .and it is very pretty right now, so it's not like it is an eyesore in the meantime.

Sheesharee, I started on my stairs last year and have been working up the energy to take the next steps and work on the bannisters and newel post. Mine are very similar to yours and looked fine originally but to me they could look a lot better painted or stained.
So far I have painted the spindles white, which ended up being pretty easy and not terribly messy. Since I see those spindles from my living room just that one change made a big difference.
I think the dark bannisters, white spindles and white risers is a classic look that will continue to look good. To me it's an understated, finished look. I'm leery of pulling up my runner and working on the stairs themselves mainly because it takes me so long to do these projects, but I tell myself if I'm organized and work methodically I can do it in a couple of days....and I think the results will be worth it.

Sheesharee, are you the one who will be removing the carpet? I did this and love the results but it was a royal PITA. I think I wrote about this before. Even though I like them so much better now they still don't look like wood stairs you see in upscale houses.

Have you looked under the carpet to see what the stairs look like? Sometimes builders don't make them out of wood that looks good exposed. In any case, when you pull up the car pet you are going to have a gazillion carpet staples to remove. Then all those holes have to be filled with wood putty and sanded smooth.

I don't mean to discourage you but I do want you to be prepared for what you might get into.

Just change the white rosette(s?) at end(s) of the wall rail to oak and remove that horizontal molding behind the rail, it will look fine.

It would look nice with white balusters, unless they're epoxied into the nosing and banister they shouldn't be too hard to remove (ask your dad?). Can you afford to replace those 10 (?) with preprimed white ones from Lowes (paint before installing)?

Don't try to change the oak nosing - will wear too quickly and be a mess to paint/stain, plus you said you have the light oak in the kitchen.

Hmmm lots to think about.

Memazz - Our stairs are at the center of the house. You can see ours from the foyer,LR, DR/kitchen, and down the hall. Yeah I'm thinking like you how it's fine but I think it could look better.

Artlover - No that wasn't me! Our carpet will be staying. I can imagine the mess in that. :) The stairs underneath are not made out of pretty wood.

Ajsmama - I'll change the rosette out. If I remove that moulding what do I do toward the door trim? Remember the detail issue? I was staring at the sairs last night and was just really annoyed with how choppy it looks. I would really like the white trim piece to run at an angle and have the railing attach to that. Maybe even paint the railing white to match that trim piece. Do a little picture frame moulding underneath. Anyhow...

I don't remember what the spindles cost but I'm sure I could afford to buy them. The problem would be changing them out. My Dad's back is pretty messed up. DH wasn't super thrilled with this idea and I don't think he'll be down with buying new spindles.

What if I just painted the ones I have white and left the rest of the stairs alone? Kitchen is oak. . . I actually would feel more confident about the project if I just tackled the spindles.

I have a friend that painted her top railings black & it was awesome! She posts on her sometimes so maybe she will see this thread . Also on a blog , there is an awesome staircase redo

Here is a link that might be useful: Blog with awesome staircase

Alisha - It depends on what that moulding is hiding. If the problem is just at the top of the stairs where the door trim and the floor and the stairs all meet, I'm sure you can just do a plinth block on the bottom of the door trim or some extra molding on top of the skirt board instead of running horizontally all the way over. Do you have closeup of the actual problem area?

Something like this (this is at bottom of skirt board, but see how the flat piece is wider and taller and runs right under the door casing used to make a "column" on the wall?)

Painting the balusters in place would be tricky trying not to get paint on the floor/nosing or underside of the rail. Not to mention getting it to stick to the finished balusters. Even if he can't do it b/c of his back, can you ask your dad what he used for a finish and if paint would stick, or if they would be really hard to replace? Maybe DH could do it?

Bonniee - That was the blog that sparked me to want to do this. I first saw it on Southern Hostpitality and then it linked to there! I still would like to paint it black or stain it darker but I'm half chicken. I think because I know I would totally be stuck with it.
Preeettty!
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Ajsmama - I would need to sand the spindles which isn't a problem. I can handle that. DH and I had half a spat earlier about the stairs and trim. :) He can't understand why I'm not happy with it as is blah, blah, blah. I always want to change things. No, I'm trying to decorate the house yadda ya. Changing the spindles isn't an option. Both DH and my Dad said the moulding was added because the drywall is offset? I'm assuming that means there's a horrible line across the stairs?? Here's a closer shot of the area.
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I am going to change out the rosette thing for sure. Hmm I need to look up what the plinth block and skirt board is. When I was talking to Dad tonight about the trim he just said I won't know unless I pull back the trim piece to see. He wasn't real eager to do anything about it. I think he thinks I'm being goofy too and it's not on anybody's top priority list except for mine. I'm honestly quite agitated at this point about it. It looks bad and I should've said something about it when it took place. :(
BUT ..tomorrow is a brand new day and I have lots of things to smile about!

By "offset" does he mean the whole top half the wall doesn't line up with the bottom half and there's a terrible seam all the way across/ Sounds like something the builder should have corrected (I've got enough framing issues in my own house to know they don't always do what they *should*). But until/unless you pull that trim off you won't know how bad it is and how far out on the wall it goes. If it's just at that top corner, you could always just cut the trim (not while it's on the wall) to continue that piece of half round up on the same angle (would have to buy a small piece, apply it, caulk and paint) and then level off at the top of the stairs and butt into the door trim. No plinth block under the door trim required from what I see.

Depends on how bad the seam is. A lot of joint compound and a *really* big taping knife, maybe you can feather it out, though joints like that in stairwells are always prone to cracking. I don't think mine is *that* noticeable, though of course I see it and am thinking of skimming another coat and repainting. I've actually got 2 seams running parallel, about 18" apart, where top and bottom modules meet,

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Ajsmama - I'm guessing that's what offset means. I'll have to check it out. The drywall in this house is pretty horrendous IMO. Made the builder come back more than once to take care of some items. I gotcha on the half round thing up on the same angle. Sounds good to me. I'm assuming caulked was used around that trim piece so will that be on the wall if it were removed? Sanding should take it off? I would just use drywall mud and try and level everything out? The paint sheen on the wall is flat and it was done maybe 3-4 months ago. Think I could just touch up that area or would I need to repaint that whole wall? The few touch ups I did in my kitchen look shiny but we used a eggshell finish there. DH has some trips coming up that he'll be gone for a couple days.... I may tackle the trim when he's not home. Drag Dad over. I sooo need to learn how to do this stuff myself. I hate depending on everyone else.

If it turns out to be that horrible looking I could always paint the trim the same as the wall color in an attempt to blend it better.

What would I need to cut that piece of half round? Or picture frame moulding? I know a saw would be a good answer but is there something small I could buy to tackle this type of thing?

I don't see a crack or seem in your picture!

Photoshop the stairs anyone?

If they caulked (probably did) when they nailed up the trim, you should be able to scrape it off with a putty knife. Maybe sand a little, then tape (if there's a crack) and mud the seam, keep moving to a bigger knife for each coat to blend the hump in, then sand just the edges to feather, prime and paint. Flat paint should touch up pretty well, but you might want to paint the entire wall again if you've got a foot wide strip of mud in the middle.

You're probably going to have to buy new half round, a coping saw should go through something that small, but I'd see if your dad has a Japan saw - maybe you can *very* carefully pull the half round off the *bottom* of the baseboard that's running horizontally over the stairs, then cut the baseboard while it's still tacked to the wall so you can get the same angle as the stairs, pull the part you don't want off, and again *very carefully* cut the routed edge off the top of that small piece left at the top of the stairs, then you can cut the half round to continue up the angle and level out (you'd have to cut the half round on an angle where it makes the bend).

It really would be better to pull it all off and have your dad cut new pieces for you, though.

This is the worst seam here - not actually cracking again (yet) but I need to fix it before we finish off the stairs (lovely gap at wall)

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I've got parallel lines running both sides of the stairwell but you have to be looking in light to see them - can't really capture in photo (maybe w/o flash? I didn't try that).

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And of course there's the crack in the corner at the ceiling that *everybody* gets

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Ajsmama - Thanks for hanging in there with my stair stuff! I don't think yours looks too bad from the pics. Thanks for the saw info and directions. I may give this a whirl when DH is away! I'm still scared of royally screwing it up though. If worse comes to worst would it be better painted the same as the wall color? That would get interesting though where the wall stops. I'd almost have to make a stopping line in the trim and that may make the problem look even worse. sigh.

How about cutting it on the angle with the Japan saw just to notch out for the half round, running the half round up continuing the angle but leaving the baseboard in place? Leave the skirtboard and half round and that little angled piece of baseboard white to match the door trim, but paint the rest of the baseboard the wall color?

You would still be able to tell it's there, but maybe it won't jump out at you like it does now. If you're too scared to cut anything, then at least start by pulling off the half round that's at the bottom of that baseboard - it looks like the baseboard and the skirtboard are flush, the half round where they meet is applied over them? Then maybe you can see what the deal is on the wall. If it's just the top of the stairs that's funky, you can buy more half round and have it cut to continue up the angle, then stop where the flat part of the base stops.

Though the nicest thing may be to pull off *all* the half round and get some cove moulding instead to run up the sides of the skirtboard (both sides of stairs) so the top of the skirtboard has the same curved edge as the baseboard, kind of like this (with or without the higher part).

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At least you have drywall! lol...we have a huge house, but when it was built apparently paneling was in..right now we don't have the money to replace the entire house basically, so i'm spackling and painting and it's turning out pretty well.

Shesharee,

Here is the bannister at my house that was oak like yours painted solid white. Ours couldn't be sanded completely down due to it being quite soft wood, maybe not solid oak, but we sanded down until smooth, then painted with one of the paint sprayers , now we just have to go over it with a brush for the final coat. Did I mention I hate painting any kind of gloss/semi-gloss.

Also we did not have a skirt board like ajsmama showed you, but added one when we ripped up the carpet and installed hardwood. We did not buy treads..It would have been over 900 bucks just for them. I found online molding for 1.97 LF amish made. We used that along with the hardwood we had and my boyfriend did a great job of creating returns as well.

Here's some pics...(disregard the tape on the stairs...still caulking the risers, sanding, and needs another coat of paint)

Also here's the molding we have going horizontal that meets up with the riser. Needs a little spackle still before final painting but you get the point. This is even with the upstairs floor and the upstairs bannister rests on this. Due to having paneling, of course the sheets like drywall aren't high enough to go all the way up on both sides, and you can see the seam next to the upstairs floor. There will also be a small piece of molding on top of the riser to make it ease up against the wall and look more finished!

Ajsmama - I was looking at my ugly stairs again up close and that half round is actually sitting under the trim. There would be a nice gap there without it. Even underneath the half round is a larger gap that was filled with caulk. What a botch job. I meant to take a picture last night and then again this morning and forgot! Drats. I'll do that tonight because you've got to see this! So you were suggesting buy a small piece of half round and just angle it up (right on the existing trim piece? wouldn't that make it stick out?) on the trim so there's some type of line so I could paint the rest of the trim and half round on the other side the wall color? Yeah, they used the half round on both sides of the skirt board. It sticks up all funny. I'm assuming normally cove moulding is used so it's more flush? I'm very overwhelmed at this point about this issue with my stairs. I just want it fixed, like now. :) Looking at my photos again, is part of the problem that the skirt board isn't long enough??

Dana - Ooo that sounds like a lot of work spackling AND painting. Hmm if it was oak is shouldn't of been soft wood.? Can you see the grain at all since painted? It doesn't look like it in the pics. I'm assuming you didn't use any type of grain filler.? Could you take a farther back pic of the whole area? I'm having a hard time picturing for some reason.

The piece of wood the spindles go into and the other piece of wood at the top of the steps...what are they called? I've been calling them treads but am not certain that's the right word?

You can barely see any grain at all...I think with those wagner paint sprayers it puts it on much thicker than if you do it by brush. We took the whole thing down and took it outside. However we did manage to also paint the bottom portion of a power pole despite covering it..lol, luckily it's the wayyyyy back portion of our backyard.

With a final top coat I doubt you'll see any grain although you could when it was sanded. The spindles are not soft, however the handrail does seem like softer wood in the center. Looks like it may be oak but not completely through? Some other kind of wood.

This bannister was original to the house built in 1973. The upstairs bannister still has to be painted though =( And yes...it is ALOT of painting.

I think since May I have primed and painted almost every room, put up crown, ripped up carpet and installed and finished hardwood floors, painted kitchen cabinets.

We are all painted out. Not to mention someone RAN OVER our cabinet doors! One of my bf's friends came over after he'd painted them outside and they were drying (we'd just got them in after waiting 2 months for a cabinet maker here to complete them).
Stupid boy was backing up in a huge truck, and ran over 6 of them...so we're back to the drawing board waiting on more to be made to replace them. Luckily he did pay for his mistake though!

Not sure exactly what the piece of wood at the bottom of the bannister is called, or the wood at the top of your stairs. Our stairs simply have a piece of nosing at the end of the landing that leads to the first stair down.

Wow, that half round must be really thick if it's *under* the baseboard running across the wall and not on top of it! There's no telling what's there unless you pull everything off. Assuming it's 3.25" base, and maybe 1/2" round, you've got a good 2-3.5" gap they're trying to hide?

Maybe the best thing to do would be to cut off that little piece of half round running horizontally where it meets the angled piece of half round. Notch out that piece of baseboard just at the top of the stairs at an angle so you can run a piece of half round (sticking out same amount as the half round running at an angle up the stairs) continuing the angle up to the edge of the oak nosing (piece of oak at top of stairs - not actually a full tread, where carpet meets oak)that overhangs the top riser. That should be about where the routed part of the baseboard begins. You'd have to fill where you took the half round out flush with stringer/baseboard and paint it white. Then keep the stringer, half round, and that few inches of baseboard at the top of the stairs white to match the trim around the door and the rest of the baseboards, but paint the remaining horizontal baseboard and half round over the stairs the wall color?

I am horrible at Paint, can only get opaque color so of course trim won't be flat like wall once you paint it, but here's kind of what I'm talking about. Take out the half round I've X'd out, continue it up where I've partially "painted" over the first line I drew up to the vertical line I drew, and then paint where I've tried to paint over the wall color, leave everything else white (some new half round, caulk and paint required at the top of stairs). That way it baseboard just over the top tread (not nosing) will look like part of the stringer? And the baseboard between the nosing and the door will look like baseboard, even if the baseboard over the stairs never looks quite like wall?

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The builder should have just continued that half round up a few inches on an angle instead of leveling it out so early. Of course, he shouldn't have run the baseboard across the stairs like that anyway. But maybe this fix will look OK until you can pull the baseboard off the wall and patch the sheetrock?

Dana - You'll have to post a picture of everything when you're complete! I can't believe someone ran over your cabinet doors! Big bummer. It'll all be worth it. Just keep saying that! :)

Ajsmama - I read over what your wrote a couple of times and I need to read it a couple more! I think I get it. Your estimates on the base, half round, and their oopsey is sounding right! Thank you for the visual! I'm still not sure what would happen with the area that I'm eliminating the piece of half round?..

I'm embarrassed to post these but here's what I'm up against! I'm temped to call the guys that did it and ask what the real deal was.

I think there's even a little gap between the half round and skirt board towards the top of the steps. It appears to be caulking.

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Other side

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They weren't to use half round for this were they?

Sheesharee, I've been following your thread in hopes it will convince me to paint my stair rail too.

Here's a very crude rendition of your stairs. I don't have Photoshop, just MS Paint and an unsteady hand :) Hope this gives you an idea of the colors, at least.

Awn - Thank you so much!! Crude is fine! I just really wanted to see this before I dove in head first. Do you have a lot of stairs?
Hmm do you think the bottom pieces should be painted black too? Normally people have pretty hardwood floors and the bottom part looks nice with that. In my case I have the oak and carpet.

Yikes! That's worse than I thought. When did you build? Here we get a 1 yr warranty on workmanship. I'd call the builder and tell him he needs to fix this (pull off the half round - which doesn't even look like half round - looks like it has a little cove on the bottom so maybe it's bed moulding?). Pull off the baseboard, fix the drywall, then cut a 1x 4 to fill in b/t the top of the stringer and the door trim (you may want to have your dad notch this to fit around the nosing - he might be more meticulous than the builder). Then top off the whole stringer (both sides) and the 1x4 with cove to match the top profile of your other baseboard in the house. So it looks kind of like that last pic of finished stairs (not the Paint mockup of yours) that I posted?

Here's a really rough visual

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So it would look something like this (sorry I'm sloppy Painter)

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BTW, can I get your opinion on my stairs? I'm really thinking of taking the easy way out and just keeping all the wood natural/honey colored like all the trim in the house.

Hi sheesh, no not a lot of stairs. I'd like to switch out the balusters to look like the ones in your inspiration picture. But I still have to paint walls & windows, so the stairs are just in the dreaming stage.

I think the dark railing and white balusters look fine, as in the rendition. No need to change anything else. If you have dark wood furniture or perhaps a mirror or picture with a dark wood frame, it would tie in to the dark handrail well. If you look at peachiepie's thread, that's what she did (added iron or dark accents, in her case).

Ajsmama - Our year warranty ended in March. Go figure. The half round does have that thing at the bottom. I don't even know what bed moulding is. lol 1 x 4? The trim piece I have now, by itself is 3.50". The trim plus the half round is 4.25" . ..So basically just buy a new piece of trim and notch is around the nosing wood piece? So that tiny piece of half round that's on the right side of the mock up now wouldn't be there.. if would be the new trim piece right?
I'll be adding this to my list of to do's.

Awn - Let me know if you get brave and do yours. I think for now I'm just going to do the spindles and live with that for awhile. I have a feeling I will end up doing something with the rest of it. The furniture in the LR and DR is all dark and my buffet in the foyer is dark. The only other light wood in the house are my kitchen cabinets. All of that stuff can be seen from the stairs depending on which angle you're standing.

Sorry about the warranty - but you can still call the builder and find out what's under the trim all the way across. Check into the warranty in your state - my uncle is ombudsman for town, licensed building inspector state of CT, he says there's no statute of limitations for shoddy workmanship (at least that's what he told me when I discovered the 2x6's filling in a gap above my sliding glass door, instead of sheetrock, insulation, and sheathing).

If the overall width is 4.25", you'll have to get something at least that big or risk having something show (or baseboard on that side of the door being lower than the other side, assuming the gap is at the bottom where the half round or whatever is). You can find 4.25" high colonial profile (what you have) baseboard at Home Depot, Lowes, lumberyard. But if you want to trim it out like I tried to mockup (something like this)

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with same cove running up the stringer and around the side, then over the top of the baseboard, rather than trying to get cove to match the baseboard top *exactly* it might be easier to buy the cove, and just put flat stock on (I'm guessing it's 3/4" thick, but could be 1/2" - you'll have to measure after taking it off), put the cove around, caulk any joints and paint. 1x4 is only 3.5" wide and 3/4" thick - I'm guessing your stringer is 3/4" but you'd have to pull the molding off to check. Anyway, you can make up that extra 3/4" with the cove molding over the top. The idea is to make it look seamless, with the same profile edge on top of the stringer and all the way up like in this pic.

Yes, pull *all* the half round off, plus the baseboard, then put the cove up along the stringer, a small piece of 1x4 from the door trim over to the edge of the stair nosing and down to meet the stringer (notch the 1x4 or the nosing - nosing would be easy using Japan saw and would look neater but get your dad to do it), cut the 1x4 a little short of the stringer so you can run the cove vertically b/t them and up over the top of the 1x4.

Just show your dad the picture in this post and I'm sure he'll be able to figure out best way to do it - that's assuming you pull all the baseboard off and patch the wall.

If your kitchen isn't visible from the stairs then I would go with the dark railing, since you have all the dark furniture. Good luck.

Thank you for taking so much time explaining all this. I really do appreciate it.

No sooner did we get our i's dotted and t's crossed and our builder was diagnosed with cancer. It wasn't looking very good for him at the time. I can imagine hearing those words will really turn someone's world upside down. SO, we tried to be sensitive and understanding throughout everything. Construction was very drawn out and messy. If it wouldn't of been for his main site guy who knows when our house would've been done. He's the one who kept things moving. We were on a time crunch with the construction loan and paying a very high interest rate at the time. In the end both DH and myself were so tired with the whole shabang we left some things slide. This one and the carpet being the other. We ended up paying for our NEW carpet to be fixed ourselves. Never ever use Shaw. Jerks. I know if I call my builder he probably won't know or remember what was up with my steps. I think I have the site guy's cell # still. I'll have to give him a ring. Builder is cancer free now. He got the news after the house was complete.

I'm scared to rip that trim off the wall. What if I can't fix it right and it ends up looking worse!?

I was checking things out again last night and the mystery moulding sticks out farther on the left side than the right! Could that have anything to do with why they picked what they did? If I bought cove moulding would it sit back too far on the left side? You might not know the answers to this without being there but before I start ripping anything I thought I'd throw that out there too. And is the moulding on upside down? It does have the groove thing on the under side.

left side.
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And now I want to paint the whole darn thing again. :) I think I would like a dark brown vs. black.

Don't paint the nosing or the part under the balusters (not sure what you'd call that when it's on edge of landing/floor like that, not at open end at bottom of stringer). it won't wear well.

Give the site guy a call, maybe he can help. Even if you have to *pay* him/somebody to fix the wall, he should be able to give you an idea of what's under and for how far (the whole length?).

I have no idea why they chose the moulding they did for the top of your stringers. But if you pull it all off and find you need 1" cove on the right (going down) and 3/4" on the left, you can do that - just want to make sure the cove doesn't stick out past the edge of the stringer, a little bit right at the bottom is OK (even a little thinner is OK, though then I'd be tempted to sand the sharp edge of the stringer to round it off), everything's easy with paint, you can hide a lot. It just looks strange to have that big bead sticking out past the edge. Choose some moulding that looks similar to the top of your baseboard.

I'm using a piece that has the same profile as my baseboard, but since my stringer is so thick and this stuff is thin, I'm laying it flat on top instead of standing it up. Still trying to figure out a way to transition to the baseboard at the top of the stairs.

Finally took some pics of what I'm thinking of

Lovely gap - over 1" from wall to edge of stringer

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Colonial "stop" molding (not thick enough so have to lay flat instead of laying it against wall - my cousin was going to finish off the end with a mitred return, just tape holding it right now)

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But that still leaves the problem of transitioning to the thinner, lower baseboard, and a gap b/t the stringer and the wall

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So I'm thinking of running the stop molding vertically as well - he'll just have to figure out the angle to join the 2 pieces of stop (and of course cut the baseboard so it fits snugly against it).

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Anyway, even though you don't have the gap (?) I was thinking you could do the same sort of thing, though if you could find thick enough molding, you could run it with the bottom sitting on the stringer and the back flat against the wall. It doesn't have to be cove or the stop, it could be any kind of molding you like as long as it doesn't stick out past the stringer (if it does in some spots you could sand it flush). But it should transition nicely to your little piece of baseboard or whatever you're going to run over to the door trim.

I saw on your other (chair) thread that you're going to paint the balusters this w/e. Did you decide what to do about the weird trim/baseboard and stringer? Did you call the site guy to figure out what's under it?

Sheesharee. It's only that small amount of wood on top of
the stairs, as shown in the photo?
I would buy a good sander (if you don't have one) and strip it down by sanding. You'll also have to buy some liquid stripper for those hard to reach places.
Strip everything except for the spindles, paint them white.
Everything else stain dark they way you want them.

I know how you feel, if I'm not satisfied with something,
I will not be happy until I fix it, no matter how much work it is. I've sanded and stripped many things, even stripped things twice cause I was not satisfied the first time.
I think you will not be happy unless the stair rail looks like you invision it.
Good luck, Joann

Ajsmama - I've been pushing my stair ideas completely aside (Except for the spindles) because I'm ... I don't want to say stressed,.... overwhelmed.. frustrated is probably the best word. Sometimes with projects I need to just stop thinking about them for awhile.

I'm ready to pay someone to fix this but I need to pick the right timing with DH. lol Again, he thinks they're fine as is and they're are bigger things in the house we need to work on blah, blah. Which is true but I highly doubt it would cost much for the fix. In time. . . I still need to call the site guy.

While I was in Ace Hardware yesterday I was looking at some of their moulding and didn't even see what's on my stairs now. What did you end up doing with your transition for the baseboard to the top of the stairs? I'm saving this thread so when I get around to fixing the problem I can refer back to all this!

Joann - Yep that's all the wood I have. I tried to use an electric hand sander once (for my kitchen stool legs) and it felt like my whole body was vibrating. It was really weird and I ended up not using it. Couldn't control the thing right. lol I suppose I could sand it all by hand it just would take forever. My Dad informed me there's pretty many coats of sealer and lacquer on the wood so I can only imagine. I was worried if I didn't get all the exisiting finish off it would look bad. Deep down I like the look of stain better than the paint plus it would probably keep nicer. I love the look of Hoosiergirl's stairs. Would you like to come help me!? Ha please. Again, I'm also very hesitant because if I screw it up.... well, I just can't. It's in the center of the house for all to see. Including me and I'm the pickiest of all who enter. :) Amd you're right, any time I look at the steps I'm not going to be happy with it until it's done right.

Hoosiergirl - Do you know what brand and color stain was used on your stairs?