The stairway from hell has now been made more angelic! Its pretty much done except for a few touch-ups. Behold the pictures:

Before: cheap baseboards, carpet glue and water stains...

make way for sanded floors and fancy trim. We discovered the corner blocks when we realized our mitre box was too small to cut the larger baseboards (which are more appropriate to the age of the house). Thankfully we found reproductions at a building centre in town. This stairway is not orginal to the house, it was added on in the 70's when the house was turned into 2 apartments for awhile. You can see the former brick exterior wall on the right side of the stairs in the pictures below.

A new mat from Ikea to hide the shoddy workmanship on the bottom landing (by a previous owner!)

Hideous fake brass lamp and water-stained primer painted walls....

make way for clean khaki walls, an unassuming Ikea lamp and a crisp white roman shade.

"I highly disapprove of this mess."

Oh but, hello lovely white stairs without any carpet glue!