6/8/06
The new stairs are almost finished
We've replaced the wood stringers with metal stringers from
http://www.artisticironworks.com/. They were the same rise and run
as the wood stairs we made, so putting them in wasn't so bad.

The difficult part was the second to third floor, where one person had to
stay on the third floor to lower the old stringers and then lift up and attach
the new stringers (which went over the first flight of stairs, so a long way down).
It all went better than expected.

We're creating the steps out of 3/4" plywood. Two pieces glued together and stained and sealed.
The difficult part of that is cutting each piece to match the curve of the tower so they fit perfectly.
Here are pictures of the first floor. Thanks go to my father for all his hard work with fitting each step.

Click HERE to return to older pictures
 
The stain ended up darker than we expected, but it goes well with the black metal.
 

The steps are even on the right, under where there will eventually be a finished railing and wrought iron ballusters that will attach on each step.
The steps are bolted down, and the ones that hit the wall are also bolted in to the wall. The plywood had a bit of warpage, so they also had to be glued together
 
The left side is tight against the wall matching the curve of the tower. The first floor isn't as finished as the 2nd and 3rd are, because of leaks and because we do some of the wood cutting, etc down here were we can be inside.
Dirty footsteps show up easily on the dark wood, like on the 2nd floor. We did a brown stain for the steps, and used the router to create a bit of a roundover and stained the edges black to hide the plywood look.
What the first floor steps originally looked like. After we started finishing things out, the stairs ended up looking too much like construction stairs. I think the new stringers make it look much more finished.
Oh, and a shot of the 3rd floor, showing that Bart has moved in.
I'm working on him to clean up the wires, but he's set up here. 
Computer, phone, A/C and fridge (behind the chair).
I can yell up the stair well from the first floor for him, but his music, etc doesn't make it down to be heard on the 1st floor.
Eventually his library of books will make it up.