Thank you. That worked great. Once I turned on reference floor I could position accurately. I found I had to make sure the edges of the stairs were inside the boundaries of the walls before it would let me create the stairwell, which makes sense. I also had have the top edge of the stairs right to the edge of the outer door boundary to have it properly positioned.
I had reviewed the tutorials on stairs and general reference info but hadn't come across anything on turning on reference floors. I also searched the knowledge base and the reference manual. I never came across anything linking stair creation and the reference floor display. I had seen the selecting menu items and even the reference floor display menu entry but didn't know what it actually meant. I am just learning the program and finding most answers by poking around, watching tutorials that seem to apply, reading the manuals, and searching the knowledge base but there is a massive amount of information to sift through.