The Landing of a Lifetime: I've Made a Huge Mistake Edition

It took me less than 24 hours to come crawling back here to tell you that I've made a huge mistake. Maybe less of a huge mistake and more of a huge miscalculation.

Yesterday, I had straightforward plans to rip up the carpet from my staircase, sand down the wood, and stain it to restore it to its original state. Boy did I underestimate the painstaking steps the previous owner took to make sure nothing could be reversed with ease. I knew the wood had been painted, but I did not know mass amounts of hardware would be mounted on it.

Under the carpet, I found a rubber backing glued to every single step. This is in addition to the metal bar soundly nailed to each and every step from the very bottom to the tippy top.

Sanding and staining? That is the stuff of yesterday. The new goal is to get this goo and hardware off of the steps so we can take off our shoes before Thanksgiving.