Stair Remodel...Step by Step...Part 1

Every spring I get this urge to do some kind of home improvement project and this spring is no exception. Actually I started playing with Pinterest and I have a huge list of home improvement projects to do this go around.

Before

Our stairs have been carpeted since they moved in. This wasn't so bad at first, but the cats had apparently decided to use the steps as their own giant scratching posts (despite the many scratching posts I have for them),  leaving tears and hole in the carpet. I also grew very tired of dragging our big vacuum up and down the steps, using the little hose to vacuum though I could never seem to get the steps as clean as the rest of the floor.

I got a quote from a professional on replacing the carpet with hardwood. It was a few thousand dollars and I couldn't justify the expense.

Then came Pinterest...and I saw someone else had redone their stairs. So I started searching and found a great tutorial here and did a lot of research on stair parts.

What lies beneath - carpet padding,
tack strips, and a mess

And then I said to my husband, let's rip up the carpet. So we carefully pulled back one step (at the top of the stairs around the corner where no one would see) to see what we were dealing with.

Wasn't too bad...tack strips and carpet padding, but the actual ODF treads underneath are terrible and whoever cut them obviously wasn't too concerned with making the edges straight. We could do this.

So in our zeal we went to Lowe's and picked up oak "retro treads." They're called retro treads because they're cut thinner so you can place them on top of the existing ODF treads. Otherwise if you're doing the whole thick tread, you have to deal with removing all of the existing treads and attaching the new treads to the stringers directly, and that is a big pain. Not to mention a safety issue - stairs have to be uniformly high and wide for accident avoidance.

We then returned home to tear up all the carpet and tack strips on the bottom half of the stairs (and by "we" I mean my handy husband).  Those carpet staples are not fun to get up.

Nosing Sawed Off
 Subtreads are now flush with the risers

If you notice, the lovely particle board tread have rounded edges that the carpet fits over. To use the retrotreads, you have to have a flat edge. So we used a combination square to measure how much needed to be cut off, then screwed a 1x3 down a long the line to act as a guide for the circular saw. This part was incredibly messy and got sawdust everywhere, and set off the smoke alarms three times.

Tread Tool

Now that the subtreads are flush with the risers (the part of the step that's vertical), it was time to start cutting our retrotreads. Of course, not a single step is the same shape. Shocking. So the hubby found a "tread tool" online at a box store, which are the metal pieces you see in the photo. You attach those metal pieces to a 1x2 board, adjust them to the right angle for each step and tighten down. You can then pick it up in the middle, lay it down on your new tread, and mark your lines for cutting.

Note: Learn from our mistake and label the "front" of the tread tool (after the photo above I wrote it on the 1x2). Otherwise you can cut the new tread backwards. Fortunately because each step is a slightly different shape, the tread that was cut backwards fit another step. 

After this handy hubby cut each tread with the circular saw using a finishing blade and fit it into its new home. This did result in some minor wall damage and lots of swearing. (During this process, I was distracted by the ugly flat builder mirror in the powder room and decided to take it down which led to holes in the wall there and a new project which I will cover in another post).

All bottom treads are cut and fitted!
Now to take them back to the garage for staining.

But now the bottom ones are all cut and labeled by number so I can start staining! They're looking good! We're going to stain them dark to match all our dark cherry wood and install white risers.

Ralph is not a fan of demolition.

The landings will be the next challenge...

See the whole project:

Stair Remodel...Step by Step...Part 2 Treads and Risers

Stair Remodel...Step by Step...Part 3 The Landings

Chicken Soup for the Figure Soul

I competed in my second show! Yay! And I did better than my first show! Double yay!!!

I felt more confident this go-around, even though my hubby said he could see me shaking from the audience, which isn't a good thing when you're being judged. But oh well. Get on stage in a bikini and a Doritos-tan and try not to shake.

Speaking of tan, I had a much better one this time too. I used Aglow Tanning at the recommendation of my trainer and they did an amazing job with my hair, makeup, and tan. I felt like a princess...in a rhinestone bikini and 5" heels.

After this show, we hit up the Cheesecake Factory. I went straight to the pasta page on the menu. It was delicious, and yet after months of eating food with very little oil and no pasta, my stomach wasn't too happy with me. Or so I thought.

We went to Denny's the next morning. But as much as my mind wanted to eat, my tummy couldn't finish. By the time we got in the car I was aching all over. I was thinking it was maybe a result of dehydration (when you're used to 1+ gallons of water a day cutting that down for the show is rough). We had a two hour drive home, and it was a really good thing my hubby was driving, because I apparently fell asleep for most of it. And then when I got home (at 3pm in the afternoon) I went straight to bed. And stayed there for the next two days with a fever and chills and all that good stuff.

So though I had plans to eat every recipe I'd saved to Pinterest, all I ate for 2 days was chicken noodle soup. Holy sodium. I ended up at urgent care and diagnosed with a nasty virus that is going around (and has taken out everyone at work). I am just now feeling normal. It also made me WEAK. I'm just now getting back to lifting what I was before the show, and even then it's a struggle.

So that was my "cheat week." Lots of sleep and soup and now I'm back on a maintenance diet and lots of water and Vitamin C...and in about 4 weeks I'll be back on a contest prep plan.

Stay healthy, my friends!

Figuratively Speaking...

...it's showtime again!

Amazing, how slowly the time will pass when all you want is Peanut M&Ms...yet how quickly time passes when you have to get on stage in a bikini again! Eek!

Building a competitive physique takes time; lots of steady, small consistent improvements that pretty much go unnoticed on a day to day basis.

I'm freaking out about getting on stage again. But excited too - it's not the big unknown anymore.

That said, I was getting cold feet tonight. Not feeling ready. Feeling tired and thirsty and nervous.

Then Erin Stern (who is one of the top figure competitors in the world) posted her own before and after photos. It took her 8 years to get there; I shouldn't feel bad about not getting there in 3 months.

So I took some photos in my suit. (I'm not going to post them because I'm so pale I'll blind you. I definitely need like 3 coats of spray tan, as horrible as that whole tanning process is.) I then cropped them next to the photos from my last show.

Miracle of miracles....I'm no longer a "pear!" I am now in size small on the top AND the bottom! I'm down another ten lbs from the last show (I'm a little worried bc my suit bottoms are a little big now but better than too small...thank goodness for Bikini Bite). I can do shoulder presses with 30 lb dumbbells, which is double what I was doing in November. And I know the spray tan makes a world of difference too...so I can't wait to see these show pictures.

And I am so appreciative of all the support from my friends and family and my amazing trainer Patricia. :) Especially to my hubby who has tolerated the smell of fish cooking every week and my recent lack of time for housework. I owe him a trip to Texas Roadhouse.

So however this competition goes, I feel like I already won something. :)

And I intend to keep on going and keep on getting better- next show is in July! And I want a trophy! (But first I'll make time for some Peanut M&Ms).

One day, one decision at a time...go figure. :P

I Ate Four Dozen Eggs...

When you're on a pretty strict diet, food gets a little weird. Things that people on a normal, healthy diet might consider bland and icky, I get totally excited about. I am a little obsessed with my morning oatmeal, and I'm really starting to enjoy cucumbers with vinegar. On leg day I was so excited to have zucchini bread. It contains no flour and actually doesn't taste much like real zucchini bread - it's basically baked shredded zucchini, eggs, and protein powder - but oh my goodness - it is like a little piece of fake carby heaven to me. I take my sweet time with every bite. I made extra for my hubby, who was not nearly as enthused about it as I am. But he gets to eat burgers and burritos and pizzas so fake bread probably doesn't cut it.


I started counting how many egg whites I had last week and stopped once I realized I was over four dozen. I think I've already had five dozen this week. And I won't even go into the actual chicken... My friend Jen said I'm going to start clucking soon. 


I was making more egg whites tonight (scrambling them up with chopped spinach and green peppers) and got that Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast stuck in my head. The part that goes: 

When I was a lad
I ate four dozen eggs
Ev'ry morning to help me get large
And now that I'm grown
I eat five dozen eggs
So I'm roughly the size of a barge!

I've been singing it over and over. Fortunately I'm not the size of the barge. Muscles are hard to build. They need heavy weights and lots of food and lots of sleep and lots of time. 


I do think I'm as good as Gaston when it comes to tromping around wearing boots. But if I start to use antlers in all of my decorating, please get me some chocolate, stat.

Scuba Dooba Doo

So the hubby, who is Rescue Diver-certified, has been after me for years to get certified to dive. I'm not a big fan of actually swimming in a pool or putting my face underwater. Let me lounge around in a hot tub or float on a little inflatable raft with cupholders and I'm good. Plus it's not exactly a cheap sport. So I've managed to put off doing scuba certification for quite some time. 

I have been scuba diving twice now, but both times were "Discover Scuba" where you dive with an instructor who worries for you about your air and depth and whether your lungs will explode if you ascend too fast. So they were relatively stress-free dives and they were in Hawaii and Costa Rica, respectively, which had amazing sea life to compensate for the terror of taking myself 40 feet below the surface. So I survived and actually enjoyed them.

Then along came a Groupon. We've gotten to do some pretty cool things via Groupon, and lo and behold a certification class came up for over 50% off, checkout dives included. That deal, plus the much appreciated used equipment donation from the hubby's parents (both of whom are expert divers), kind of took away my excuses not to get certified. 

So tonight I found myself in my first Open Water certification class. The whole course is basically 15 hours classroom learning plus 5 checkout pool dives, followed by 4 checkout open water (lake or ocean) dives. Provided I can survive this week I'll do the lake dives when it warms up in the spring. In addition to 2 hours of classroom time tonight, there was a 200m swim and 10 minutes of treading water. 

I'm really terrible at treading water. I don't think I've done it since I took swimming lessons in elementary school. No one treads water for fun. Plus, in a pool, I do not float. I sink straight to the bottom. However with a variety of leans, floats, and kicks I managed to stay afloat for those ten minutes, which is all I needed to get to the next class. 

If I didn't know how much I liked seeing the reef life and how relaxing it is once you're in a dive, I honestly would say I would be totally freaked out. But the instructor is really good and I was promised there is no more treading water involved for the rest of the course. So I'll hang in there and let you know how it goes. 

Here's to a Strong 2012!

Happy New Year! 

So I decided to do another competition. It's not really a New Year's resolution since I actually started competition prep a couple of weeks ago. I kind of wish it was a NY resolution, because dieting through the holidays with family sucks. Not only is there a lot of delicious homemade food but everyone wants to go out to eat. Overall, though, I survived.

The holidays were also pretty darn crazy so I didn't get much time to post. I'm still working on sending out Christmas cards. It's cool, we're only on the 9th day of Christmas and Ukrainian Christmas is Jan. 7th so I figure I've got a few more days. :P But, I'm back to posting because it keeps me accountable! 

I'm really excited for this competition. The first one I did for the experience; this time I want to see just how far I can go. I have a fantastic trainer and I already have been making strength gains and getting smaller. It really helps to have a deadline for fitness goals - I see results faster when I am committed to a deadline - I do believe it has something to do with how committed you are to self-control. 

The tricky part this time is my husband is home (yay!). The only upside of a deployment is I only had to worry about cooking for me and stocking the house with only the food I could eat. This go-around I have to also worry about a hungry man who is interested in eating more than chicken and oatmeal all the time. I spent two hours in the grocery store trying to find him food that he would want and I wouldn't. This resulted in a lot of beef jerky, sandwich meat, bread, milk, and spaghetti-o's.  Sweet stuff wreaks is kryptonite for my willpower so it's best not to have it in the house. I really appreciate how supportive he is. He even helped me grill my chicken breasts and zucchini.

Best wishes to you and yours in the new year! Big goals, big dreams! 

When You Need to Hit Something

...hit the gym.

It's the most productive sort of hitting. And it generally doesn't result in broken knuckles or holes in walls; unless you're throwing your weights around in which case you shouldn't be in the gym at all. I always feel better after a good weight session and wearing cute workout clothes.

Since today was kind of a rough day, I decided to do back and biceps, which is my favorite workout. I think it's because I can go pretty heavy with my weights on my back and afterwards I feel stronger and I stand straighter. It was also an awesome night to be at the gym because people apparently do not workout on chilly December nights.

Anyways, I was working out and doing my thing and a guy in pretty decent shape asked to work in between my sets on the seated cable rows. He wasn't dripping with sweat and was polite about it so I said no problem. It was the best non-verbal compliment when he went to adjust the weights and then realized it was already as heavy as he wanted.

That's right, my weight gloves have pink rhinestone hearts (courtesy of F4L bootcamp) and I lift heavy. Girls with guns rock.

I feel much better now. And there was no hitting involved.