I haven’t been able to write since yesterday morning because I ran into something of a situation that shut life down for quite sometime.

After the movie fiasco yesterday, I was able to help Gavin resolve his bladder issues by taking him to the park and walking the track.  Unfortunately, I aggrieved my old back injury while we were there.

He hasn’t had any issues since.  ☺

After everyone else was done with the movie, we all had lunch at my parents house. 

The boys were scheduled to have dinner with their Mom last night and I got a message from their Grandmother asking if she could pick the boys up earlier than planned. 

I was like, heck yeah..

I haven’t been sleeping well and figured I could use the time to get some rest. 

This is where things took an unpleasant turn. 

As I was getting the boys ready to leave, I went up the stairs to get Emmett socks and the stair case collapsed. 

By collapsed, I mean broke free and we’re not safe to walk on, without falling through to the basement.

I called my Dad to see if he could help me brace them from underneath.  I was thinking that it would be temporary, just until tax return. 

My Dad arrived around 4pm and we started looking into what was going on. 

My Dad is at least a second generation, very skilled carpenter and what we found had him at a loss for words. 

Apparently the part of the staircase that collapsed was previously rebuilt and the person that did it, literally pieced it together.

When we removed the drywall to expose the underside of the staircase, we discovered there weren’t even any stringers.  Stringers are what the stair treads actually sit on and they are what provide the staircase with support.

Neither of us had actually seen anything like this before.  My Dad said it was the worst repair he’s every seen in his life. 

In the absence of actual stringers, the previous repair person literally jerry rigged the staircase and they were essentially free floating, which is what lead to them finally giving way. 

The stringers that looked to be there from the outside, we’re essentially decorative and served no purpose. 

It was so bad that we weren’t even sure how to fix it or where to even begin.

Every time we started making progress, we would uncover some other bit of construction insanity that required us to figure out a work around or stop and fix.

We contemplated rebuilding the entire staircase. Honestly, it would have been easier but it would also have been more expensive and frankly, the top part of the staircase was solid because it was original to the house. 

The job began at 4pm and we weren’t done until well after 2am.

I called the boys Mom and asked if they could just stay with her and her parents overnight because the boys wouldn’t be able to get upstairs. 

The boys ended up staying the night and that was a huge help.  ☺

Anyway, the staircase has been rebuilt and it’s solid as a rock. 

It ended up being my Dad, my brother and myself. 

Carpentry hasn’t really been my thing for awhile and I threw my back out while at the park with Gavin, so I have to thank my Dad and brother for picking up the slack and helping me get this done. 

The staircase we built is like a tank and built properly.  In a hundred years, that staircase will be all that’s left of this house.  lol

I’m so grateful to be able to count on my family when something like this comes up. 

Between taking apart everything that was previously done so poorly, figuring out how to make this work without tearing the entire staircase out, getting supplies at the Home Depot, building the new staircase, retrofitting it into the undamaged part of the existing staircase and finally cleaning up, it took us damn near 10 or 11 hours. 

I’m so grateful and lucky to have family that not only has the skill set needed but also the willingness to help. 

We still have to repair the walls and reinstall the trim but that’s largely cosmetic and I think we’re targeting next weekend for that.

Thats pretty much that. 

Check out the pictures below to see what we were dealing with.. 

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