Preparation for Carpeting Stairs and landing

We are having the stairs and landing carpeted soon, so some preparation has had to be done.  The window cills have been fixed down at the top of the landing, and over the front door.  They are just glued down onto battening with gripfill.  The one at the top of the stairs had a sizable gap under it at one end, so I used expanding foam to fill the gap which has the added bonus of providing some insulation from the cold stone.  The foam made a good backing onto which I was able to build up layers of filler out to the laster face.  If you look closely, the finish isn't that good, but it is always in silhotte from the light coming in the window, or from the overhead fitting, so you never see it.

Now these cills are done, the big heavy beam that has been stuck over our stairwell for months (maybe years) has finally gone.  It was a useful piece of timber - double width joist at 4" x 6" I think, nice and try form being kept indoors, so I offered it up on our local free-give-away group (Stroud Freegle).  A Lady came to collect it with a neighbour of Hers, who She had only just met, but had a van.  Unfortunately between the 3 of us, we managed to push the beam into the van from the back, too far, and it cracked his windscreen.  It turned into a rather expensive lump of free timber.

Another task was too apply some oil to some of the doors to the upstairs rooms.  This is surprisingly time consuming as all the doors are panelled and two coats were done on each side.  It wasn't strictly necessary to do this now, but at least one of them had to be shortened to allow for the carpet, so it was as good a time as any, and better to do it outdoors where the ventilation and light are both good.  Fortunately I used loose pin hinges when I hung them, so easy to dismount.

Finally a picture of the stairs.  There is a gap between the oak flooring and the first riser which I hope is going to be covered by the folded over part of the carpet.  Time will tell.