The Stairs...A Saga only just begun

So, remember when I was all loco and I said I wanted to do this to my stairs?


Courtesy Thrifty Decor Chick

 No. not the cute little shadow mice (but that would be cute for Halloween). I want to to rip out my carpet and paint/stain the stairs.
Here's her before (mine is very similar-but unfortunately I don't have a pic right now):

My stairs aren't nearly as nice (carpet-wise). They weren't in the best of shape when we moved in and we certainly haven't helped,what with having a parade of kids running through these past 6 years (daughter and her friends).
But the layout is the same L shape stairs to the loft and it's all enclosed with drywall. I wish I had a pretty staircase with banister. Like these:

But alas, it's not to be.
Instead I have what I have. Oh, well. But on to a few more pics to show you what I want to do with my stairs, dark stain and white risers!

These pics are all courtesy of a basic image google search.

So, down to the nitty gritty. I decided to cut a piece out of my carpet and pull it back to see what I had to work with:

 

 Not good. It's like, drywall plaster or something. Okay, but this was the top of the stairs so maybe that's why. I pulled back my padding and another riser of the stairs to see:

What the crap. I was very disappointed. I mean, look at it. Its some sort of plaster.
But this gave me a little hope:

See that peeking out of the white? It looks like wood. So, there's wood there for sure (duh), but it's covered in some sort of plaster similar to the texture of my walls UGH. I wanted semi-smooth (if not a little beat up) basic wood. I tried to sand it a little to see how difficult it would be to come off...It wasn't budging. Then again, I just sanded by hand. It might do better with my electric sander. But it would certainly be a daunting task to undergo and would most definitely cut into my napping time on the weekends (not to mention I already have a dresser I've got to re-stain that I've stalled on because I hate sanding!).

Wanna see another problem? Okay.

 

Check out the gap. No, no, not the GAP. (though they do have cute clothes). I mean, this huge gap between the staircase and the wall.

 Not so bad from that angle but look at it straight on.
See?

 

 

What the crap!?
How do I fix that? I don't even know if it's possible. Wait! I know! Trim...trim fixes everything. So, one problem down. But still, what to do about that crazy texture stuff?

Anyhow... that's where I stand in the stair department. I put everything back together but I may be ripping all the carpet out anyhow. I mean, it's filthy stained carpet (judge not, lest ye be judged!) and needs to be gone sometime anyway. So rip it out now and try for something else. All else fails, I could paint them (forget the stain). Keep the texture, just paint them something wicked like this:

In fact, that doesn't seem so terrible after all. I think I'm gonna try it and just see where it leads me.

All of these painted stairs look perfectly imperfect which is what my house tends to be anyhow.