Let me start by telling everyone thank you for your wonderful advice. I am so glad I found this website. Now to get to the problem...I am laying a bamboo floor in my hallway. I had to lay plywood down first so that the bamboo would go lengthwise and wouldn't look like a ladder effect. Unfortunately the joist run down the hallway in the same direction...hence the plywood.

Things were going well until I got to the staircase. I am keeping the stairs carpeted for now so I am laying a bullnose across the top of the stairs. This is were things get tricky and I wish I could draw a picture for you but here goes. The top stair is recessed into the hallway by about 6 inches so when I laid the first board down the hallway it ended at the edge of the staircase and looked really ugly with the end of board just stopping there. Is there a way to hide the end so that it doesn't look unfinished? How do you seamlessley add this bullnose and boards so that everything comes together nicely?

Thanks for any advice you can give me and if you need further explanation or even a picture please let me know...

I think I can visualize your situation. I believe if you were to frame the stair nosing around that first step you would avoid having cut raw unfinished wood at the side of the first step. If that makes sense, I must have visualized correctly. If it doesn't make sense we will have to try to be a little more clear. Pictures are worth something...in that case.

I need a picture!...

When I have a staircase involved in an installation, and the flooring is going to run with the stairnose and not butt up, I try my hardest to start at the stairnose and continue the installation off of it. Either way, The stair nose is the first board installed.

Thanks for the advice. I will post a picture when I get home tonight under the hardwood problem pictures. When I post it I will reply on this board so that you can see exactly what I needed. Thanks again