Stairs are finished

Talking a lot about IF so I thought I would share some house pictures. The stairs are now done! It is darker than before, but now all the wood is basically the same color - we did not paint any of the other trim in this area.

Update to schedule

i went in for b/w today. While I was there I asked about this weekend. I knew they had Sun hours and also knew that Labor day would have reduced hours.

they initially said to come in on Friday for a scan and then they would decide from there. Originally they said that Sunday would probably be the next visit. kind of sucks because we are having a BBQ on Sunday so that would kind of throw a wrench into the mix. But, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Well, they called this afternoon to increase my Follistim and said that I can stim for 3 days and then come in for a scan. This puts me on Sat instead of Friday and then I guess it will be Tuesday.

I am sure they were thinking about the fact that the weekend is coming and a long weekend at that. This works better for me anyway.

Just stinks that I have to drive about an hour to go to the doctors - lucky for me it will be a Sat and hopefully will not hit a lot of traffic.

They increased my Follistim to 125 units each night until the scan.

Started Injectables

Last night was the first night of injectables. Piece of Cake!

I am starting on 100 units of Follistim, and will add Cetrotide later after stimming for a few days.

Here is my schedule so far (subject to change based on progress)

CD3 - b/w and u/s: Done (Monday)
CD5 - b/w only (Wed)
CD7 - b/w and u/s to check any follie growth (Friday)

After that I really have no idea. CD9 is a Sunday and CD10 is Labor Day, so if I need to be seen on either of those days, then I need to travel the almost hour ride to the main office. Since it is the only office that is open on Sunday and Labor Day, I am sure it will be packed. The office I go to is a smaller office, and is not open on weekends.

So, we will see how that pans out. I know the cetrotide prevents premature ovulation, so I am really not too worried about possibly not going back in for monitoring until CD11. I know injectables are different, but I triggered on CD11 for my last IUI.

Here is everything I am taking (or will take) for this cycle:

Follistim - injectable medication: Started with 100 units on CD3. This med works directly with the ovaries and should not produce the same side effects as clomid (YAY!)

Cetrotide - injectable medication: Will start based on blood work this week. This med prevents premature ovulation

Ovidrel - injectable medication: This med triggers ovulation and will be given once my follies are nice a big.

Folgard - oral medication: I was recently Dx with MTHFR, which is a gene mutation that prevent the proper absorbsion of folic acid. This could possibly be the reason for my recurrent pregnancy loss. The research on the link between MTHFR and m/c is up for debate though. I take 2 pills once a day. This is in addition to the normal pre-natal vitamins that I am taking.

Prometrium - vaginal medication: In the past, I have had low progesterone. This medication increases progesterone and although it is a pill, it is inserted vaginally.

Wow, that is a lot of meds just to get and stay pregnant. I know on IVF cycles, the med list is even longer!

Today is CD1

Today is 5 weeks 4 days post D&C and I am happy to say that today is CD1. I will still holding out hope that this would be a break BFP cycle - but I guess I am not that lucky.

I guess all you have to do to get your period, is buy a 2 pack of expensive pregnancy tests. Obvioulsly I could use them in the future, but I really wanted to be able to use this this time around.

But - setting aside the fact that I did get my period, I just figured out that it is GREAT that I got it when I did. If I got it next week, then this cycle would more than likely be put on hold. My husband is going away Sept 10, 11, 12. So, if I got it any later, there would be a good chance that he would be away during the "prime" time.

I don't think timing will be an issue at all because CD14 would be 5th, a whole 5 days before he has to leave. I have never ovualated that late on a medicated cycle. In fact, my IUI have actually been on CD12 or CD13, so I am PRAYING that timing is not an issue.

We are doing injectables this cycle - plus Flogard (meds for MTHFR), I just hope that injectables do not mean late ovulation.

From what I have read, most do not ovualte later. I will go to the RE on monday for CD3 monitoring and also to talk about the effects of the MTHFR.

It is weird, when I was there last week (Thrus) to give them my new insurance info, I joked "I hope I see you soon" I was hoping it was going to be for beta, but I will still see them soon, but for a new cycle.

I am just excited to get this cycle started YAY!

I feel like a slacker

I try to blog as much as possible. I know for me, I check blogs often and like to see updates. It just seems like I really have no updates.

I still have no period, I have no house updates, no funny stories about Colin...nothing to blog about.

So, instead, I am just going to write about totally random stuff.

My RE
I really like my RE's office. Today I just stopped by to give them some new insurance information. It turns out the one and only nurse was one her way out - but we chatted in the parking lot for a bit. When I went into the office, the receptionist was the only one there. I guess the doc had the day off and she was just waiting for the mail guy to come. She told me she had to stay all day.

I love the fact that everyone in the office knows me by name, talks to me like a person and not a patient, and know my "plan" without having to look in the computer. I have no idea if they are like that with every patient. I am a chatty person - so maybe because I talk to them before and after my monitoring, maybe they "know" me. I see them do both: ask for a name, or greet some by their first name. How knows. I like them anyway.

Colin
Colin is spending the week at his Father's (aka grandma's house). His phone must be dead because it goes right to voicemail. I really want to talk to him, no one is returning my calls.

Weekend
I have a bridal shower tomorrow and still have not wrapped the gifts. It it for my SIL and it seems selfish to admit, but I am glad that I did not have to plan any of it. I will make the call to my other SIL and ask if she needs anything. I know she will probably say no, but I know she will keep in her head that I asked. Points for me :)

Painting
The only thing left to paint in the house is the 1st and 2nd floor halls and the walls that connect the two (aka the stairs). I have already painted the actual stairs. We got a quote for over $1000 to paint this space. This quote was from a chain type of painter. Well, I started painting it today and I hate it. Not the color, just the space. It is a pain in the neck because of the tight space, the angles, the the tons of spaces that I can't reach. On top of all that, the walls look like crap because they are so uneven. I even thought of putting a texture on the wall just to try to hide some of this.

I looked on Craigslist and there are several people listed there that have "specials" for $75- $100 a room with a 3 room min. So, I am considering calling one of these guys and ask if (2) hallways and (1) connecting wall [staircase] will count as 3 rooms and if the min would apply. So, I would get the whole area painted for either $225 or $300. I think if they can do it, it is worth it. I don't think my husband agrees though. It is ME, however, that does the painting. He sucks at it and it very sloppy. So, of course he would think that we should do it ourselves. :( I will have to try to convince him tonight.

Period
I still do not have my period. It looks like it is going to be like last time and be a 6+ week thing. Everyday I want to wear my really cute white skirt - Labor day is coming you know. Don't want to break any fashion rules (if you know me in real life, you would know that I coudn't care less about the rules). But I do want to wear this white skirt. But, can't realy do that it. My luck it will be the one day that I am not "prepared" and I will feel like I am back in Junior High and have a "I have to go home RIGHT now, accident".

Oh - and for those that are curious, yes - I have taken a pregnancy test (well, more than one) and no, I am not pregnant :(

So - there you have it - a post about nothing.

The jig is not working!

5 weeks post D&C and STILL no period. It is getting annoying. This time last week I was SURE I was getting it. I just had that feeling. Nope.

I hope this does not turn into a 6+ week thing like the last time. I just want to get this show on the road!

Period Jig

A blogger and T-TTC friend does the best Period Jig ever. This is what I think of when she says she does it.



I will be doing it every hour - I really need lots of help in that department.

Cycle update

The update is that there is no update. I am still waiting on my post D&C period. I seriously thought it was coming on Monday - I guess my uterus had other plans. So, now here I am 30 days after the D&C so what do I do - yup you guessed it, I took a pregnancy test. Just a cheapie. I only had one cheap one left anyway.

The results? Well, I am assuming that since I did not write "I am pregnant" as a post tile you can figure out the results.

I just really hope it is not 6+ weeks post D&C that I get my period - like the last time. I really thought that since my levels dropped so fast that I had a shot of getting sooner rather than later.

I quess we will wait and see. Once I get my period, we will be moving forward with IUI with injectables. IUIs have worked well for me, so I am hoping that my pregnancy luck will continue. I just pray that my m/c luck does not

Back story of my house

Someone asked me for the full back story of my house - so I thought there might be others that want to know as well. So, I am posting the answer here (gonna be a long one).

You can see tons of before - during - after pictures HERE

Frank and I got married in Dec 2005. We moved to a small town in NW, NJ and were renting. We actually moved there in Sept. So about Jan/Feb, for fun we started going to open houses.

It was then that we realized that we would probably be renting for a while. House prices were pretty high still and what we could afford was crap. We decided at that point that we would wait 1-2 years before starting to look again.

Well, since I moved more than an hour and a 1/2 from my job, I was doing temp work. On my off days, I would just play around on the internet. One of my "go to" websites was the NJ Multi-listing. I though that maybe something would just fall in my lap.

Well, exactly that happened!!!!! I would check it usually in the morning. So, I looked at it one day and saw a house listed.

The house was listed with 4 bedrooms, living room, family room, office, decent yard, etc. And then I looked at the price. It was super super cheap. It was about $90,000 less than the cheapest house we had seen. Thing is - there was not one picture.

I really thought it was a mistake. So, I called the Realtor and asked why it was so cheap. I thought maybe there was a fire or other type of damage. He basiacally told me that the seller was VERY motivated to sell. I told him I wanted to see it. It was so cheap that I knew that we could afford it - even on just my husband's salary. The guy told us he would only show the house if we were pre-approved for a loan. he also said that there were no pictures because the house was just listed 20 minutes ago.

We called a guy that they reccommeneded and got pre-approval the same day. I went there at 4:45 that same day (by myself) and totally loved the house. Of course I had to look beyond all the crap and how bad the house looked. But seriously, what I really saw was all the wood moldings - and of course potential.

The house was built arount 1900 (give or take a few years) and had great bones. Plus it was a great size for us. It is really big.

I called my husband as soon as I left the house and told him I wanted it. Now, I have to admit - I would never looked at this place if I knew it was a side by side duplex. never thought I would want to live in one. I also have to admit that the main reason why I wanted the house was the price - but I also loved that it had so much potential. When you are in the house, you can not tell that it is a side by side. The floor plan is not the norm for a side by side.

My husband came bright and early the next day to see it and we put an offer in on the spot. We found out from the realtor (was not really supposed to tell us) that the house was a pre-forclosure. We later found out more details from our attorney. They accepted our offer within a few hours. Which was great, because there were other people that did in fact look at the house.

Basically, a guy owned a house but "rented" to a relative. Their agreement was that he would buy the house and they would pay the mortgage and the taxes and of course all the utilites. I guess they could not get a loan themselves. Well, I guess that agreement did not work out so well. The payments were always late, the owner wound up paying more times than the people that lived there, etc.

When the house was listed, they were very behind in the payments, they had not paid any sewer bills for 2 years, and the taxes were over a year in arrears.

The guy was basically selling the house for what he owed the bank. He was not going to make a dime. The issue was that the price did not reflect the back taxes or the back sewer fees. That all worked themselves out and we closed 45 days later. We also found out 3 days before closing that the house was still not cleared out. I guess they worked all day and night because on closing day, there was just some paint, etc left in the house :)

We knew that we would have to put a lot of work into the house. The house had been rented for about 30 years (different owners) and renters really do not take care of houses like they are their own.

As you can see in the pictures, a lot of the work was cosmetic stuff, but there was also a lot of behind the walls stuff. We have all brand new plumping and electric. The kitchen was not really functional , so we moved it.

When we closed, we went gung ho with demo and did a lot of the plumbing. My dad was helping too. We also did all the cosmetic stuff on the second floor. All the rooms on the second floor (except the bathroom) were fine, just needed the carpets ripped up and new paint.

After a few months, we ran out of money and ambition. For more than a year, we really did nothing to the house - little things here and there. My husband wanted to pay down some more debt before we did anything else.

What really set the wheels in motion was that in November 2007, we were trying for over a year to expand our family. We were getting ready to start seeing a specialist. I told him that there was no way I would be trying super hard (with medical assistance) to have a baby, and that baby has no where to sleep. He agreed - but kind of dragged his feet.

So, in Jan I started looking into a Home Equity Loan. Got all the info and basically he just signed the papers.

We hired a contractor in mid Feb and the work started the next day. We had some issues with our loan and issue with the contractor but I guess it all worked out in the end. The most exciting moment was when my stove was hooked up.

We did not have a kitchen for almost 2 years. I cooked every meal on a hot plate or the BBQ. And believe it or not, I cooked most every night. Heck - I have a growing teenager that I need to feed :)

Now, we are at the point where it is just little things left. Things that we did not want to pay for becuase we could do them ourselves - things like paint the stairs, paint the porch, etc.

But, we are having a big Labor Day party and you KNOW these things will be done before then.

Well, that is the back-story in a nutshell. Sorry it turned out to be super long.

Infertility bumper stickers

Yesterday while driving home I saw one of those oval bumper stickers. You know the ones. They are 2 or 3 letters that are a (sometimes) weird abbreviation of a tourist place. It is like a "been there, done that" type of thing.

Most of the times I have no clue what town there are for. I of course know the ones that I have been to. I first saw OBX (Outerbanks, NC) way back in 1999. Colin was 4 yrs old and we went on a huge group trip to a beach house on OBX. Since then, I have seen them everywhere.

Anyway, this is the one I see driving home - and of course I can only think one thing

Yup - I only think "Timed Intercourse"

So, I thought, "heck, we should have these stickers for infertility - that would be cool".

So, here is my Infertility Bumper Stickers (click on them to see them bigger)

From Left to Right

Intra Uterine Insemination

In Vitro Fertilization

Infertility (Sucks)

Unexplained Infertility

Injectable Chick

Clomid

Trouble Trying to Conceive

Adoption

Femara

Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome

Male Factor Infertility

Miscarriage Survivor

Some more Before / After pics

Here are some before and after pictures. I love how my house looks with nothing in it! I still have lots of After pictures to add. But, I wanted to make sure they were real afters - you know with the trim painted, etc.

Some are old, some are new.

I am loving the slide show thing - better than adding tons and tons of pictures.

Infertility Miscarriage Bracelet - My take on Infertility's Common Thread

You can read all about Infertility's Common Thread on a previous blog post. But, I thought I would change it up a bit to reflect a m/c as well as IF. Both suck, but having to deal with both of them TOTALLY sucks. So, I wanted to have one piece that represented both.

I went to the store and bought some beads. I looked for a charm that had tiny feet on it but really did not find anything. I was not looking to spend loads of money. I just wanted something inexpensive that I could do myself.

Even though the common thread color is supposed to be pomegranate, I thought the red was close enough. I added 2 sections of pink and blue beads to represent the two babies that I have lost. I also added the butterfly as I have heard that it is a symbol of fertility.



They really are nothing fancy. Just beads on a piece of elastic. But, I like it.

I have lots of extra beads and even some extra butterflies. If you want one, I will make you one and send it to you for free. Just leave me a comment or send me an e-mail at makeitgrandetc at yahoo dot com.

Maybe it will be a conversation starter. And like I have said before - Conversation Breeds Awareness.

I know - ENOUGH about the floors

I promise, this will be my last post about the floors.

I made a slide show of some of the before/after pics. I do not have a full set because we can not walk on the floors yet.

But, here you go:

Confirmation that a Pro should do floors

Here is direct confirmation that we should not do floors. Althought we thought we got a lot sanded, apparently we did not. Here are just two shots. They are in the order of Before - After we sanded for 8 hours - after a pro sanded for about 2 hours (OK, maybe 3).


So - you can totally tell that the job we did was basically crap. I am so glad we did not listen to my dad when he said that our job looked OK and that it would look fine if we just put poly over our sand job.


You will have to wait a few days until I post after pictures - we can't walk on the floors for a few days.

I have been tagged

I've been tagged by the best period jigger in all the land (LOL), and her blog is I would Diet for That

Here are the tag rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you (i.e. me)
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger (me) know when your entry is posted.

I am going to try to post super random facts - I hope I can come up with 6 though - so here goes:

1 - I have the strangest sleeping habits. I wake up so quickly while dreaming that I think my dreams are real. I yell and scream and walk around. I talk to my husband about thinks in the room, and really think there are people living in my closet. When I was younger, my parents had to call the cops because I was convinced that someone was in my bedroom. The weirdest thing is - in the morning, I hardly ever remember these episodes. My husband knew about this before we got married - otherwise he would be in for a SHOCK!

2 - I have 2 uncles on my mother's side of the family that are grandparents to the same children. Yes, unusual - but not in an gross kind of way. One of my uncles married a women who had adult children. One of my cousins married one of those adult children. So their kids have grandparents who are biologically related.

3 - My legs do very weird things when I try to do a lunge. As in aerobics. You are correct, I have not done aerobics in YEARS - but it always seems to come up when alcohol is involved. This video (cheesy) shows how a lunge should look. But when I do it, my back legs goes completly BEHIND my front knee. I have NO control over this. When I try to go straight, my hip pops out of the socket. It is very unusual looking to say the least.

4 - I have 18 ear piercings, but I never wear any earings. I actually only have one pair of earings. I have 10 on one ear and 8 on the other ear - hey, it was cool to have uneven piercings. I took them all out when I started working in an office. For a while I would take them out everyday and then put them back in at night....then it was only on the weekend, then it was just one set, then somehow it just turned into never. I am a very low maintence person, so if I had a pair that I could just never take out, well then I would probably wear them more often.

5 - I have had so many different hair colors over the years. I have been dying my hair since I was 18 years old. And even before that, I am sure I used sun-in or clearisil to bleach my hair. I have been doing it for so long that I am not even sure what my actual color is - except for all the gray. I have been many different shades of red, couple shades of brown and WAY too many shades of blonde. I like blonde the best, I guess, it is what I always go back to. My natual color is gross - kind of a mouse very dark blonde - well, at least that is what the non gray parts of my roots are :)

6 - This one is not for me, but my mom (and some of her siblings). In my uncles local paper, every week they post a random picture of a "secret shopper". A grocery store takes a pictures of some random person in the store and post the picture in the newspaper. If you see yourself you can go into the store and get some kind of prize. Well, my uncle saw a picture of an older man that looks JUST like my grandfather. But, my grandfather passed away about 10 years before the picture was posted - so we know for sure it is not him. My uncle copied it for his siblings and my mother still keeps the picture on her refridgerator. It is the funniest thing - it is a picture of a random person that she does not even know. It is sweet though.

7 - Ok I know I was only supposed to do 6, but this one just came to me - because my floors are getting sanded as we speak. I LOVE some interesting smells. I love the smell of sawdust, asphalt, & gasoline. Yeah, I know - weird right.

Who do I want to tag (that has not been tagged before)???? I have to think about that one.

I think we might do injectables

Talked with RE today, he does not think we should jump right to IVF. He thinks we might have better success if we try IUI with Injectables. He said my issue might be the meds I am taking, not the IUI. After all, the IUI is getting me pregnant.

I might be starting injectables with the next cycle. I just have to wait for my post D&C period and need to have all my other bloodwork come back ok.

I am Ok with not going to IVF - it is a big step from IUI. Even if the injectable cycle does not work for me, at least it will be a "practice" for IVF.

The doc will call me this afternoon with what I hope is my last beta. If the beta is zero then I can go in and do the rest of the RPL panel. He said that the results only take a few days. We have already done the tests that take a long time.

I might ask him to Rx the injectables for me now, so that I have them no matter when I get my period. I have to mail-order them. I would hate to not have them in time.

Oh - also - the genetic tests from the D&C were "normal" However, they can not tell if the tissues were from an embryo or from me. If the tissues were from me, of course they would be normal. Even though the results were normal, it is still possible that there was a genetic defect with the embryo.

So - we move foward from here.

UPDATE: RE Called, beta is down to zero. I will go in this week for the rest of the RPL panel.

DYI Refinish Hardwood Floors

We decided to try to refinish our hardwood floors ourselves. Many of our friends and family told us that it was a piece of cake and a great way to save loads of money.

I was all for hiring someone - I mean I really wanted professional results. But, I was willing to put in all the work and save lots of money.

So, here are my tips to DIY Refinish Hardwood floors.

1 - Know When NOT to DIY
Save your money as long as it takes until you can pay a professional. I really can not stress this enough. Even though we attempted to do this ourselves - we are bailing out. It is really a bigger project than we can handle. Maybe if our floors were not 100 years old, or covered in layers and layers of god know what - maybe we would have different feeling on the matter.

2 - Sanders
Rent the best sander out there. Do not believe when the guy at the rental place says that XYZ sander is just fine for residental use. Tell him you want the sander that the pros use. We started with an easy to use sander. It had 3 round disks and was in a triangle shape. This machine was easy to use and got a lot of the film and varnish off the floor. However, after 8 hours of sanding (with different grits) that is barely what was off the floor. Again, if the floor was not as old, maybe this would have been a great sander.

After a whole day of sanding, and our floor still looking like crap, we decided to rent the super pro sander. This sander is called an orbital or belt sander. The sander has a long wheel where the paper sits and it spins like a wheel. This sander worked GREAT!! It was harder to use than the first one, but you got used to it after a few passes - just start where the couch, etc will be.

We also rented an edger - this thing was HARD to use as it was so powerful that it had a mind of its own. It did not have rhyme or reason where or why it sanded. Plus, it was not a long handle type of thing, so you were either squatting, knelling, or on your knees.

3 -Knee Pads
Knee Pad???? - Yup, as much as you can't think about why or when you would need knee pads, trust me - you need them. It seemed like I was on my knees a lot. It was using the vac, using the edger, wiping up the dust, looking for staples or nails......I was on my knees all day. My knees are still red from yesterday.

So, beg, borrow, steal (OK - maybe not steal) - but get knee pads any way you can. Trust me it will be worth it in the end.

4 - No contacts, please
I usually wear contacts but decided not too because the amount of dirt. I am glad that I made that choice because I was still rubbing my eyes often.

5 - Pick your nose!
OK - now I am getting into the "personal" tips. But seriously - pick your nose and pick it often. We did not wear a face mask. Maybe if we did then this type would not be required. But the dirt in my nose was just gross. So, I figured the more I cleaned it out the better it was. And yes, I did try just blowing my nose. Picking was totally a better method.

6 - Dirt is GREAT for your skin
What the heck am I talking about???? Dirt can't be good for your skin. Well, I have to beg to differ. The amount of dirt on my face was totally gross. But let me tell you - when I took a shower and started cleaning my face - well the dirt was a great exfoliator!!! My skin was so smooth after the shower!. I might just bottle up some dirt and sell it as the next beauty secret!!

7 - Know when to call it quits.
First let me say that my neighbor is a floor guy. We got a quote from him last week - higher than others we got.

After sanding for 8 hours with a crappy sander, I told my husband that we should have floor guy (FG) come over and at least give us some info. I really wanted to know if this was going to be the best that we could get. I said that FG might be able to give us a tip on how to do it better or might even say we are doing it all wrong.

But - my husband is stubborn - even more so than me. He said, "no, lets just get the other machine"

We spent more money to rent 2 more machines and more money getting the paper for these machine. We worked for another 2+ hours today before my husband finally said, "This fucking sucks, we will sand for another 5 hours and still have the floors look like shit" - "Let's just throw in the towel and ask FG to do it." - "Maybe since we did some of the work he will knock off a few bucks"

So in the end we will have paid about $200 for rental fees and paper used. We are able to return anything that we don't use.

So, if we can knock off a few bucks form FG's price, then it will basically equal what it would have been if we jujst went with FG in the first place.

I feel so defeated. I really thought this would be much easier. Again, if our floors were in OK shape and maybe were not over 100 years old, well then it may be a different story. But with the edger so hard to use, the marks where the sanding is uneven, the hallway that has to be done by hand because it is too narrow for the machine, and the fact the our bodies are HURTING, we are throwing in the towel and getting a pro to do the floors.

We will stick to DIY projects that are annoying - but do-able (aka painting the stairs)

I will post pictures our our sanding job and then pictures of the FG's sanding. I am just hoping that it can be done this week!!!

OK - some house news

Things have been CRAZY around here and I have been slacking in the house updates. The past two days I have been painting my stairs. We originally were going to strip them and then stain them to match the adjoining wood trim. This proved to be a bigger job because we could not get stain to match the 100 year old wood trim.

Myhusband is not a fan of painted wood in a brown shade - he is OK with white, but feels that if you have dark wood, it should be stained not painted.

But, that proved to be our best option. We were not about to strip all the woodwork when it is in good shape and has never been painted. Half the house has the original trim in the original color (well aged color)

After searching high and low, we (that means I) found a paint that is SO SO SO close to the trim where the stairs meet. So, I painted the steps and the baseboard this dark brown and the spindles white - well actually I only primed them so far, but you get the idea. I also primed the "kickplates" - I don't even know if that is the right term.

I only have a true before picture - which has carpet. i should have taken a picture of the stairs after I tore up the carpet - but use your imagination. The stairs were ugly - has several shades of stain, paint, etc and the kicks were a yellow beige kind of color.

Here are some pictures: