A Staircase Remodel Problem at the Beach House

During the beach house remodel, a problem arose with the staircase remodel. It left an opening in the wall in need of a creative solution.

It was planned that there would be a solid wall up the staircase to the 3rd-floor deck. But when they went to build it, the new wall didn’t align with the old wall. So during the entire construction, there was a five-foot opening along the staircase. Fortunately, the open wall with a gate is way better than a solid wall. That certainly was not how I thought this mess was going to end.

The Staircase Remodel Problem

During a remodel, there are always issues and surprises along the way. The problem with our staircase remodel was big because the new wall didn’t match the old one. And it was a problem our architect didn’t catch when he designed it.

Come on, seriously?

This left a large opening in the staircase which wasn’t safe.

The other side of this opening is the first-floor entryway and it’s pretty far down.

If you look at the board that goes across the bottom of the opening, you can see that on the right side, it is flush with the wall. But on the left side, it fits in front of the wall. That is what I call a situation.

One option was to add a pop-out wall or beam that wouldn’t be flush on either side. But that would have looked terrible, especially on the other side. The other option was to get creative.

Obviously, I decided to get creative.

As you can see, as the remodel progressed, the opening was still there!

The Staircase Remodel Solution

Fortunately, we came up with a brilliant solution.

And the end result is something that I will tell everyone we had planned on doing all along. Hehe.

The Gate

Maryliz had an idea to put a gate in the opening.

I started shopping and I found one that was a pretty close fit for the opening. It was on Facebook Marketplace very near to our home and the price was very good.

So, I bought it.

(This is probably where I should mention that Dave took one look at it and said, “Wait, what?”. He didn’t quite have the same vision I did. And that certainly wasn’t the first time …”

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Building Out the Opening

The next step was to build out/finish the opening for the gate. My contractor figured out he could build out the left side to make the gate flush.

That was brilliant.

This photo above is was what the space looked like before the final painting.

At the least, the two side walls were now even, so it was painted and ready for the gate installation.

Preparing the Gate

The gate was a bit too chippy and rusted and my contractor ended up sandblasting the gate. Next, they added new paint that was the same wall color as our home and a some bronze/brass color to match the rest of the house.

Isn’t this incredible?

The opening on the sides and bottom is about 4″ so it is perfectly safe and sturdy!

The Staircase Remodel Success

These photos just make me so happy and I cannot believe how great this turned out.

I know we all face struggles and frustrations every day. I have always tried to be a “fixer” and have tried to find solutions for challenges or “situations” that come along.

This time I got a lot of help from my best friend, which inspired me to start hunting for the perfect solution. It took a few months to find the right gate but patience and perseverance paid off.

Big time.

It took a long time but it was so worth it!

Don’t you think?

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Final Thoughts

Now that this is done and looks amazing all I can say is that I wish this would have been my original idea all along. It’s that good.

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