Also, I forgot to mention WHY I am so upset about the carpet choices....I really wanted a printed carpet (pictured below), but I don't think it will look good wrapped around the stairs and butting up against the wallpaper in my foyer. So, I will have to use the same solid carpet on the stairs, hall and bedrooms since I cannot get the mouldings repaired.

Here are some additional pictures showing the carpentry mess we found once the carpet was removed:

And the carpet:

Karezz, your stairs appear to be in SO much better shape then mine when I took my carpet off. I think it's a real shame that they carpeted the outside stringers. I think it would be worth a try to patch and caulk the stringers. Once they are painted with your trim paint I really think it would look better than the carpet.

Look at my staircase blog and maybe it will give you some idea of how the stringers could potentially look after some TLC.

Here is a link that might be useful: My painted stairs

Our stairs are carpeted, with the first few that show having end caps on them. Are the stairs in good enough shape to do that?

Here is a picture of ours:

Nice photo, Jan! What's that wall color?

Red

Just to be a devil's advocate, have you had any finish carpenters come in to take a look at this? Not a regular all-purpose carpenter but someone who really specializes in the fiddly, exacting details. I think it might be worth trying to get two or three to come in and look at this just to see what can be done with it, because a good finish carpenter can do some amazing things.

I'm not really sure that it would be all that hard to do what you want with your stairs. The "carpentry mess" you refer to just looks like unfinished stairs to me. A good finish carpenter should be able to fix you right up.

Don't get me wrong, it'll be an aggravating, time consuming, fidgety project. I just don't think it falls anywhere close to impossible on the home-repair spectrum.

I agree with the above posts, get another opinion from a more specialized carpentar.

I do have a suggestion. Have you thought about facing out the stringers with a (spelling) Lou-on and adding your trim to that? It will offer a smooth painting surface and it's thin so it won't add a lot of bulk to the stairs!

Thanks to all for the tips and the pictures!!

The carpenter I talked to yesterday couldn't do it. Another carpenter was just here and he is very confident that it can be fixed without a problem - in fact he's done this before. He's charging me $700 which I think is a fair price (NJ).

I'll post some AFTER pictures soon!!

Glad you found someone who can help at such a reasonable price. That's great! I love your carpet choice, by the way.

Red, the color is BM Wilmington Tan.