Just this weekend I was talking to our woodworking guru about the lucky breaks we’ve had since this reno started. First was the amazing beam between kitchen and sunroom, which meant we could open the two rooms up without a problem, and then the fact that there was finished room, with finishable floor, under the silly boxed in area the previous owners built in front of the lovely bedroom bay window.
Well that run of luck hit a brick wall today, when the floor finishers discovered that the nice oak treads we thought we had on the first floor staircase are not nice oak treads at all.
They are veneer, and aging veneer at that, so there’s no earthly way the experts can sand them down, stain them up and create the perfect wood staircase.
Options:
- Delay things by a week and throw another few thousands dollars at the problem to put in new oak treads on top of the veneer, then stain them up to match the floors in rest of the house.
- Or go for the Oreo cookie route that we’re already planning for the (pine) second-floor staircase, with chocolate brown painted treads and white painted risers.
We’ve put enough money into this house for now and I’m really keen to move. Oreo cookie route it is.
And if that’s the worst snafu of the reno, I think we will probably survive.
