Smiley House Sans Stairs

I debated about removing the staircases, but not very long. Painting, wallpapering, flooring around staircases can be very difficult. The first couple tugs suggested that I might not want to remove the staircases as they felt like they would be nearly impossible to remove without destroying something.

I decided to give my metal putty knife a try to see if I could get it under the base of the first floor staircase. Success! With a little wiggling and pushing, the bottom of the staircase came loose. Next I slid the knife along the wall up the stairs to see if there were any obstacles.
By that I mean "glue." Fortunately, the glue that remained was fairly brittle and put up little resistance. The top of the staircase was a little more of a challenge.
Again, cautiously pressing between the floor and top step eventually separated them. I was able to remove both sets of stairs and the railings along the top without any damage.

It is important to note that occasionally the glue might be more resilient and require more coaxing. In that case, I recommend you get your hairdryer and apply a little heat. Direct the heat toward the glued area, making sure that the metal putty knife gets some of that heat as well. Then just continue to press and move the putty knife between the connected areas until they come apart. Don't force! Just slowly and patiently work the putty knife along the area.

Now it will be much easier to prime and wallpaper the walls along the staircases. The idea of cutting the wallpaper to fit against each stair was not something I wanted to do. It is much easier to wallpaper an entire wall rather than fit around steps.