If you're thinking of renovating your house, there is one very important thing you must do before you get started.... hide ALL of the matches! I guarantee you there will come some point in the renovation when you'll be tempted to use the matches for something other than lighting a bonfire.

There have been several points in the renovation when Tyler and I have even started to doubt our own sanity. But, it wasn't until last weekend that we started to contemplate reaching for the matches. Why? Well, have you ever tried to figure out the rise and run for a stair stringer? If you have, you undoubtedly understand our temptation. You start off thinking, "Rise over run - that should be easy. We covered that in like 5th grade." Well, this is a perfect example of how things that look easy turn out to be anything but in the real world.

First, Tyler and I made some miscalculations when figuring out what type of staircase (L vs U) that we could put in the foyer. Our preference was for the L-staircase so we were all excited when it looked like the staircase was going to fit. Unfortunately, we were using the 36" x 36" dimensions for a stright staircase landing vs the 46.5" x 46.5" dimensions for a landing with winder steps on it. And, even more unfortunately, we didn't realize our mathematical blunder until we had constructed the perfect platform for the landing.

Our first platform.

Rather annoyed, we resolved ourselves to the use of the U staircase in the foyer. We constructed a gigumbus platform (81" x 39") for the landing between the two halves of the staircase. Then we tried to cut out first stringer. The calculations came out that we needed something like a 10.463" run for the stairs. Have you ever tried to measure some kind of fraction whose greatest common denominator isn't 32 on a ruler? It doesn't work too well. Needless to say, our first stringer attempt wasn't successful. We were about an inch short.

The final layout for the foyer.	The gigumbous platform.

Considering our frustration levels had passed our maximum tolerance, Tyler and I decided it was time to give up for the weekend and get ready for work.