Also PPS7 - We thought for a long time about powder room placement when it came to the house plans.. We saw many ideas on where people put them but for the most part the options we were seeing was to either A) put it in the foyer area of the home, B) put it off the kitchen, or C) put it off the dining room.. After giving it some thought we really didnt like the idea of putting the powder room off of any of the eating areas.. We also didnt like the idea of putting it in the foyer.. The idea of walking into a home and bam there is the bathroom.. Again its personal preference but we just like the idea of having it more tucked away.. We were actually goign to not even have a mudroom but personally I hated the idea of walking directly into a main room of the home, whether it be the foyer, living room, kitchen, etc.. I like the separate entrance.. And honeslty the most I see being stored in that room is coats and shoes.. However we were thinking of reworking this area as we would like a side entrance into the home.. We were thinking of moving the mudroom to where the powder room is and then putting the powder room where the entry door from the garage is located and doing a powder room that is narrower so that when you open the door you have toilet on left and sink on right.. But again we do like the current setup.. Here is what it would look like:

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I am replacing the floors on my first floor. I would like to do any renovations first that would impact on the floor installation. My staircase is not attractive. The handrail is plastic and although it looks fine in the pictures it really does look very cheap. The professional stair and railing people arenÂt interested in just replacing the handrail so I need to plan what I could do myself or if it is worthwhile replacing the whole staircase. Since I could be moving within 5 years, I would like any changes to be a reasonable balance of improvement in appearance and cost. IÂm very flexible. I would be happy with any improvement. My dogs would ruin hardwood treads so I was planning on just replacing the carpet. It might be nice to put laminate or hardwood on the second floor. That would not be possible without changing the way the banister is installed. I would just like a simple banister similar to the first 4 photos using my existing iron spindles and new iron or simple wooden newel posts and a wooden railing. I donÂt know if it is possible to only replace the handrail or if a whole new banister would be more economical. link for pictures of possible changes (see first post for pictures of existing staircase I would like to remove the ½ wall after the winders and add a matching banister. I assume there is a stringer under the dry wall. I would have to embed the spindles in the stringer. I could only do this if I could change the existing handrail because I could never match the existing plastic handrail. I donÂt like the placement of the current newel post. I would like to cut the stringers back a bit and install them closer to the first step or change the first step to a curtain step and install the newel posts to the curtain step or in front of the second step. Similar to the last 3 pictures. I am feeling very frustrated trying to find someone to do any or all of this. My floors are on hold until something is decided. I think that I could veneer and cap the stringers myself but fitting a new handrail would probably require a professional stair person. The DIY books have very little info on renovating a closed stringer staircase. I'm really confused about what to do or where to go for help.

sorry, I posted another message with pictures. I can't figure out how to delete this picturless thread!

For the stringer-side gaps, you could overlap a new stair skirt board on both stringer sides (involved carpentry skills, but doable), as long as you retain the required clear width between stringers. For the riser gap, typically you could intall a new thin riser fascia over the old. However, since it appears there is only an 1/8" nosing overhang the size of the tread radius, an overlay fascia isn't possible. And if it's a sizable gap replacing the riser won't work either. Note that if your tread is less than 11", then you must have a nosing overhang of min 3/4". If you removed the quarter round, measured gaps and all the stair measurements regarding code, I'm sure there are a few of us here who could walk you through getting this right. However, you should just hire a different, competent finish carpenter (one who does stairs) to do this.