Finally Stripped and Painted

Well the big job and mess are finally over! The staircase and railing are painted.

 After all the spray paint I ended up painting with a really good enamel primer and paint. The spray paint actually never would cover completely, I would have had to go through about 100 cans and surely would have asphyxiated my neighbors. I had to repaint the basement wall going up to the first floor due to over spray.
I'm going to keep the wooden planks covered with paper until I'm done with all the plaster and painting still left to do.
The staircase is done,  I'm happy with the end result.  Now to the first floor. More to come..............

I ended up deciding on black paint for the staircase and railing with golden oak stained steps. I won't stain and oil until the very end, so for now I'll keep them wrapped in paper.
 Once the walls are primed and painted these stairs will look like a work of sculpture, they already are. When I first saw the place the stairs could have sold it alone.
There is an interesting article the New York Times see link:
www.nytimes.com/Lafayette_Park
Also, be sure to listen to the audios that go with each profile. The images were helpful to me to see how differently people  addressed the staircases through the years.

stairs to second floor

basement stairs