The three fathers (my dad, father in law & papa Ming) helped sandpaper down & stain the staircase in our house. This process took three days. We (the ladies) were very proud of our men! Looked really good although a few blotches of stain here and there on the wall (thanks to my mr Tim Allen hubby!)
Anyway, we deliberately designed the staircase to have:
1) Round handles - so that when Zach is older, he can grasp it better as opposed to square columns.
2) Carpet staircase - how I wished I could have a wooden staircase so that I never have to vacuum the staircase ever again (like my parents place). But no, after tossing and turning on this decision, we knew Zach's safety came first so carpet it was!
3) We made two doors below the staircase:
i) to keep shoebox (so we can take our shoes out from there vs the back sliding door).
ii) to put wine rack - perfect place to store wine & take it straight out into the dining room :) (thanks 7th aunty for that idea ;)
