Watch that first step...

It's a doozy!

We are officially in over our heads on this one. Although surely we would do better than the previous remuddler did. At some point they changed the slope of the stairs going from the main floor up to the attic-turned-bedrooms. Or maybe there never were stairs - which would not help explain the shredded nature of what we foundSomething is definitely not right here.Something is definitely not right here.
This is a view of the middle of the support for our stairs that go upstairs, as viewed from the stairwell heading to the basement. The plaster along the latter is now filling 4 very heavy trash bags in the basement. What we seem to be looking at is the culmination of 2 problems, neither seeming to have a very good reason. The stringer (dark wood, supports stairs) is too shallow (why? I don't have any idea) so they just added a 2x4. Simple fix, surely just as strong! The cutout that you see, that sort of looks like an upside down stair is where two stringers meet because neither were long enough (why? I don't have any idea). And it didn't even seem necessary to bridge this gap with the scabbed on 2x4!

We had to take a time out after this one. It all started with replacing the door to the basement and realizing that the door jamb seemed to be supporting the stairs. It will now end with a complete rebuild of the stairs. And this can't even happen until we can move into the main floor bedroom which is after the drywaller comes which was supposed to be after replacing the basement door which will now have to wait.

Oh boy. The take home message here? Buy new or GUT IT ALL right off the bat.

I think my next tattoo should say "Remodeling is NOT fun". It could go right on my index finger so every time I point to another cute little fixer upper the entirety of the conversation would go like this: "That would be fun. Oh wait."