Heavy treading on the staircase.

Since the stair-building process has become a multi-year saga, let's recap. Starting with the timber-framed opening in 2009, I framed the curving staircase and built a border on the wall side using mostly reclaimed lumber and wainscotting. I milled slabs for the stair treads from some maple logs (these were from overgrown trees removed from the city streets in our nearby town).

The slabs were kiln dried over the winter, then cut into stair treads, planed and sanded smooth. A lot of precision cutting was required here, due to the unique shape of each tread and my choice to attempt a trimless installation. I finished them with Ecoprocote Eco-Tuff Clear Coat.

The final product:

I also made slab tops (these from white pine logs) for all the curved border sections.At the top landing, I built a small linen cabinet. The door pull was made from a hay rake handle that I found on the farm years ago (and saved for something like this). The stair treads have a variety of nail holes, knots, and worm holes to keep it real.

And finally, the treads were drilled for the motion-activated LED stair lighting kit, which is pretty cool in itself.

Final task is to fabricate a curved handrail...I'm still scratching my head over that one.