Kitty Carpet Steps.

In less than 24 hours there should be a kitty here, transforming our house into a home.  Our Enterprise will finally be joining us in Japan after a relaxing respite with family in Washington State.  The thought of his long plane ride, however, is shooting my anxiety off the charts.  It's doubtful I will get much sleep tonight, of course neither will Enterprise.

Preparation for his arrival is keeping me a little busy.  One project involved the steps going upstairs which are tiled with the same smooth, white flooring that covers every room in the house.  Enterprise is not used to this surface and I had concerns about his confidence and comfort using the steps.

Carpet treads for stairs are quite expensive online and I didn't necessarily want to cover the entire staircase, creating camouflage for any creepy crawlies that may find their way inside.  I envisioned small pieces of carpet lining one side so Enterprise would have his own safe path up the stairs.

Last weekend we made a trip to Viva Home, a home and household goods store, and found strips of dense carpeting with a grippy backing designed for steps – perfect!  They measured 25cm x 100cm and cost about ¥400 (~$4.00), based on my prepared list of measurements we needed four pieces.

The project was very easy to execute.  I measured each step from the back riser to the inner caulking edge of the stair's lip.  Since this is an older house the measurements ranged from 20.25cm to 21.75cm, with six being almost exactly 21cm.  I used a metal ruler and a box cutter with a new blade to measure and cut through the back side of the carpet.  Not all the step's angles are exactly 45° but the pieces fit very well nonetheless.  I ran up the steps barefoot using the carpet and not one moved underfoot.   Success!

The bottom piece is shown for comparison, I didn't leave it like that.