January 22nd - Day 22/343 days to go!

Today I worked on finishing the cutouts where the staircases fit into. I had this idea in my head and it was time to see if it would work out in reality. The idea was that I would be able to put the banister on this trim and them still be able to have a removable floor on the second and third floors. The purpose of the removable floor is that there will be wiring underneath it and if at some point in the future I needed to get to it...I would be able to. Sounds good in theory right?

I decided to try the third floor opening first since it would be the easiest. It was also time to use that ole carpenter's rule too.....measure twice, cut once.

I didn't want to just trim the opening, I also wanted to trim the wood sides of the opening as well.....hopefully all at one time. The other consideration was the top step or top tread that would lead onto the floor. I wanted it to look like a real riser.

The first picture is the cutout on the third floor. The space on the wall that will be wallpapered I can easily trim later. The second picture is of the trim (just remember it isn't glued into place yet). The third picture is how it will look once the banister is attached and it is secured into place. This will give me an edge to make a template of the flooring, and an edge to run the wood flooring up to.

Once this was completed I tackled the second floor opening. A little trickier since there was much more fitting needed to accommodate the two banisters on the staircase and a space on the front side of the stairs.

Just need to stain, seal them and then I can glue them in!