Basement Boogie: Ups and downs

One minor design change we're making in the basement that we hope has a big impact is The Changing of the Stairs.

Sounds official, right?

The "old" stairs were closed in with a cement wall on one side and a high drywalled (um) wall on the other. They were dark and made the room feel dark and dreary. 

So, we ripped them down.

OK, maybe not the whole stairs. We ripped down the railing. Because we learned with the deck that stairs are a real pain in the rump to install. So, we're going to recover these and open up the railing.

Here is what we framed up this week:

Our goal is something more open and bright. Like this:

Tonight, we're going to wrap up framing and electrical so we can get inspected before the weekend!

Please tell me your plans are more social and less mole-y than ours.