Stairs at last! (or, shall I say, "at the last minute!")

This was a huge accomplishment for everyone. Several hours of conceptual planning, days of cutting, planing, sanding, and assembling the stairs, lots of elbow grease, and finally, a crew of 6 hauling it up into place this afternoon (we roped in the plumber and the gas guy). THE STAIRS ARE BEAUTIFUL!! Gary and crew did an amazing job. Kudos to Kaplan-Thompson also for coming up with the thick hemlock concept...although Gary & co may beg to differ. Those stairs were unbelieveably heavy!

The stairs went up just in time - Gary and Pete leave tomorrow on vacation to California for 2 weeks. Well-deserved, but we will miss them! Friday is the Big Move.

Check out how the afternoon light shines through the treads and creates a pretty pattern on the wall.

The stairs are not done - they need to be bolted to the wall and railings need to be put in (again, waiting on cable items to be delivered), but what a great start!
Here are a bunch of the treads, numbered and piled up awaiting installation:
Gary and Stanley installing the very first tread:
The happy crew, just after hauling the stairs into place:
Close-up of the workmanship. The stringers and treads are 2 1/2" hemlock, specially milled for this project. The toe kicker is a stainless steel rod, procured from a local welder who ordered 12' lengths and then cut them to size for us: