Kitchen staircase progress

I jump around from project to project, as you might be able to see.  Ask my wife, she'll agree.

The kitchen staircase is showing some progress.  I've removed 1/4" plywood "risers" that covered up the original white paint.  I have begun stripping the maroon floor paint from the treads and sanding off the old dark (almost opaque black) stain/varnish, down to the original wood.  I have put down a test area of stain.  I had some Minwax dark walnut on hand so I rubbed a small area.  I let that dry for 24 hours then put one coat of oil based poly on top.  I wanted to see how dark it would be with that combo.  In the picture below you can see the small stain swatch on the top tread, front right corner.

Bare wood treads and stain test patch

My goal is for all of the stairs to have the same stained treads and white risers.  It's fun uncovering the old coverings.  I didn't get a picture, but when I was pulling off the quarter round molding under the tread lip, I found some vinyl woodgrain flooring that someone in the past applied to the stair RISERS.  Pretty 70's I think.  Here is another shot of the the stairs as they stand now.

Lastly, here is my proof that the stair risers were painted white from inception.

In this pic, the white is the original white paint.  Above it is a small area of bare, unfinished wood where quarter round was mounted under the tread nose.  I've pulled the moulding and it's being stripped via chemicals in the garage.  It was too small to use the sander.

I'll post again soon with more progress on these projects.