Because the path to John's office promises to be well traveled, the rough plywood stairs were replaced with the gorgeous birch used as the main level flooring - there was a good supply left over from the original construction order. The stairway is a generous four-foot width, so there was plenty of room for a built-in bookcase that could hold some of Wendy's office material and cookbooks. The stairway is also a good place to hang all those collages of the family when the boys were youngsters.