$100 Room Challenge: Staircase Landing

We are almost done, we have made it to week 4 of the $100 Room Challenge: Staircase Landing wood floor installation.

Welcome to week 4, of the $100 Room Challenge: Staircase Landing Wood Floor. If this is your first time seeing the $100 Room Challenge, let me  give you some background, it is a bi-annual challenge sponsored by my friend Erin, from Lemons, Lavender, & Laundry. What is the $100 Room Challenge all about? This challenge takes place twice a year, January and September. Erin invites us to redo a room in our home using a budget of only $100. As you can see the premise of this challenge is real simple: one month, one space, and $100. If you want to know more about the $100 Room Challenge, check out Erin’s post to see how the concept was inspired, and it’s colossal growth since she decided to start it!

Weeks at a Glance:

WEEK  1      WEEK 2     WEEK 3     WEEK 4    REVEAL

This week we are so excited to be adding the final piece of the puzzle which is the hardwood floor landing. We are currently in last DIY week of the $100 Room Challenge: Basement Landing Wood Floor. This is our before look at the unfinished landing and the steps we have been working on the last few weeks and where we started and how far we have come.Just your typical unfinished steps that most builder grade homes leading into unfinished basements. We do however have some sheet rock installation, albeit not very good, which was done by the builder up to this point. Which is pretty laughable to say the least. No trim or cased openings but a basic layer of sheet rock, which is painted and better nothing.

This week we added about a half box of hardwood flooring that was left in our attic by our builder as extra replacement pieces. Since we have 3 boxes total we figured using the small amount to do the landing for this staircase would be okay and we would still have plenty in case we need to do any repairs, plus it is free wood floor.I knew the color would not be an exact match to the pine wood steps which did take the stain a bit darker than the oak steps upstairs, even though I did use the exact same colors that are in the rest of of my home, to continue the continuity of the home and the existing finishes. Especially since you can see the landing from the family room which is the exact same wood floor. However, you will notice that it does match the existing handrail, which is the exact color of the rest of the trim in my home, so I am fine with the difference in color.  To start this part of the project we determined that since the rest of flooring upstairs runs east to west, that it made sense to keep that run pattern on the landing. Again continuity in the details will make the add on project not seems as if they were added on or even a DIY. We also needed to make sure we created a lay pattern to the plank runs as well. This was easily done by cutting one single plank where we needed the pattern of the seam to occur and reversing the ends. The one additional piece that we needed to purchase for the this project was the stair tread nosing which we were able to find at Lumber Liquidators for $7.99 in an unfinished stair nosing wood, so I could stain it match the floor and steps with the same Jacobean stain.  We realized that the landing did need a small amount of quarter round to complete the edging of the the floor as well.  I will say Floor & Decor had the best price on primed quarter round at 61 cents for 16 feet. We had to go get those last minute pieces, so you will not be able to see the the quarter round installation until the final reveal next week.However as a quick designer tip, we did cut and paint those pieces a head of time so we would not make a mess on our newly installed flooring.  So now we are waiting for it to dry before we will install it for the reveal next week. This tip will save you a lot of heartache on trim like crown molding and base molding so you do not mess up your walls or floors.
So this is what the landing now looks like to finish off this hallway.  I can not wait until the reveal, I have a few little staging things I have shopped from my home that I need to add in, and of course the final cleaning of the steps. Plus the final piece of quarter round is going to make the landing look finished. The Proposed Schedule: 

Week 1: The Plan 

Week 2: Clean/Prep Steps Remove Over Spray Paint, Sand Treads, Putty Nail Holes/ Stain to Match upstairs steps

Week 3: Wainscot Chair Rail & Re Paint/ Touch up Walls, Add New Light (fixtures we already own, gathering dust for 3 years for another project)

Week 4: Install matching Hardwood on Landing (Leftover boxes found in attic from Building)  Maybe Add Artwork?

Week 5: REVEAL

BUDGET:

Week 1: $0

Week 2: $3.68 Stainable Wood Putty

Week 3: 8- 8′ Chair Rail Pieces $7.02/ea= $56.16,  4- 8′ Wainscot Trim $6.84/ea= $27.36

Week 4: Stair Nosing $7.99, Liquid Nails Construction Adhesive $2.48 Quarter Round $1.22

THIS WEEK’S TOTAL: $ 11.69

PROJECT TOTAL: $98.89    Whew, and I Think I Am DONE!