kennebunker, yes, it would have been a lot deeper. The neighbor couldn't remember if there was some sort of railing around it or not. I agree with the porch being the same, but according to people on the street who've lived here a long time, it's always been as it is. She did have it rebuilt, but rebuilt as it was. Except for the porch roof. glassquilt, yes, I've been all over this little town looking for anything. There is nothing. Their is no arial tax maps...they only did those for farms, historical society is housed in the library and there is nothing. The way I understand it, the PO did it this way to save herself some money. I haven't gotten the abstract for it yet, that's my next stop. I asked the PO if she had any pics of the house before siding, before new windows, before she changed the porch roof, she claims not. On another note....the baby blue siding the PO put up there. Why would anyone do that? Neighbors say it's the scallopy type siding under....we get a new roof next spring (had hail), so while they're here, I'm having that removed. Even the foundation was baby blue! Terry

Leave it be. Stair work is some of the most expensive zero payback work that you can have done. And what you had was so much better than the overwrought 1997 fakery shown.

Darker is BETTER. Like in sewing seams on a garment, it is better to do DARKER with the tread than it is lighter. Jacobean stain has been used successfully to remove the red from red oak. If don't properly, the Jacobean stain (like water popped treads) will come VERY close to the tone/colour or the DARKER stripe in the feature wall. To keep the country theme, you can have the RISERS painted WHITE. The WHITE will help the Jacobean 'pull off' this change. A small bit of separation from the floor colour, the tread colour and the feature wall colour is all that is needed to FOOL the eye into thinking everything is tone on tone on tone. Water pop + Jacobean stain + ONE COAT of finish. Remember: the FINISH is what will add more yellow/orange (oil based or oil modified poly) or NOT (water based poly....like Bona Mega One or Traffic or Traffic HD). Find out the FINISH for the treads. You will be picking blind if you do not have a coat of finish over the stain.

Usually in a single-family residence in the US, a "handrail" is required along flights of stairs with a minimum and maximum height of 34" and 38" above the tread nosings. A "guard" is required at open-sided walking surfaces (including stairs), more than 30" above the surface below with a minimum height of 36" and no maximum height, however, the handrail at the stair is allowed to act as a guard. In buildings open to the public, the minimum height of a guard is 42" with a separate handrail. What are the existing guard and handrail heights, how steep are the stairs and are there any intermediate landings? It would help to see a photo.