Not Just Cabinetry

The beautiful pine and mahogany staircase

One of the reasons we like to do kitchens is that changing the kitchen often transforms the house: it lets in more light, opens things up, improves the flow, makes the house friendlier.

We sometimes do other projects, renovations or just designs for renovations that involve these issues without involving the kitchen (yet). Our friends Matt and Sarah Kahn have a schoolhouse nearby in Calais, sitting on rubble walls around an earthen crawlspace. They hired Jim Rogers to lift up the house (more or less like the pizza chef picks up a pizza) and put a real foundation under it, creating a whole new level of living space.

Todd Krumperman spent almost a year over there, finishing off the basement and doing massive repairs upstairs. Toward the end, with Steve Grunewald, he built the beautiful staircase in these pictures, connecting the new space with the old classroom.

Materials:

stringers: LVLs

Trim: D select pine

Treads: yellow pine

Railing system: mahagony

So fresh and so clean.

View from the upper level

View looking down the staircase