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If you have followed me very long, you would know I keep a lot of things stored up in the attic. To get into the attic is a pull-down attic ladder, since I retract the ladder several times a day, I have gone through two of these ladders! Instead of buying another ladder unit, we hired a contractor to build stairs up to the attic.
I thought I’d share a project that I didn’t do myself, oh I had my hand in it but after the contractor did the hard part, the stairs!
The first day was removing the pull-down ladder unit.
Once the ladder was out, he cut a wider opening in the ceiling. The last thing he did that day was make the side support of the stairs.
On the second day he started building the stairs.
It was exciting to see the stairs being built; however, it was hard for me to sit back and watch instead of helping.
When it came to decide if the back of each step should be enclosed or kept open, we decided to keep them open since our doorway is behind the stairs. We will be placing an outer handrail ourselves later this Fall, we had him place the railing on the wall for now.
It took the contractor only two days to build the stairs. Now it’s my part to finish the trimming and painting. Here’s a look of the opening before I added trim and paint.
Maybe it’s my OCD, but I don’t like the look of cut drywall and unfinished boards exposed.
We added a “trapdoor” so I can close the opening when not in the attic.
The crown molding was removed due to cutting a wider hole in the ceiling. Since I couldn’t put the trim back properly, I added it flat to the wall. Doing this keeps the trim inline. I caulked the gaps.
Taking some MDF I had from other projects to cover up the cut drywall and support beams.
Remember how it looked before?
I trimmed out all 4 sides, filled in the nail holes and caulked the edges.
Primed and painted the trim and door. I added a handle for easy closing and opening of the door.
We haven’t decided if we want to paint the stairs and railing yet, but for now we are happy with how it looks.
Having the stairs instead of the pull-down ladder will take some getting used to, we are excited to have a safer way to get up and down from the attic.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023 TerrieDecorating our home on a budget is my thrill. I think a home can look beautiful without breaking the bank. Your home should bring the best out of you and make you feel happy. You should smile every time you enter your home. 🙂
That looks wonderful. I’m looking for something similar to be done. Could I ask approximately how much the cost was?
Around $1200
Wow you did a great job Terrie. Well worth hiring someone to do this big job.
Yes, it needed to be a professional to build the stairs. We can finish it out but the stairs we couldn’t do ourselves.
Terrie that is a genius idea! That’s one of the reasons we bought the house we are in because there is a walk in attic access in the room above the garage. So much safer and easier to get to the attic. You did a fantastic job!
We have wanted to do this for the longest but kept putting it off. I demanded it to be done before Christmas. 🙂