So as mentioned before, we are refinishing the stairs in the hallway, and decided to redo the guard at the top of the stairs, as it is much too short. Code is 3.5 feet, and ours is less than 2.5. If I stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I could easily go right over the edge if I didn't grab it the right way, so I can't imagine what would happen to people who are average height. The project is a bit more complicated than it seemed - have to cut a lot of new wood pieces, secure them to the floor somehow, build new newel posts (as the one that is there is a hollow box and not really structurally sound), and add the top railing - all within a very brief amount of time so we are not without that guard for any period of time. Last weekend we bought most of the supplies - poplar for the balusters, painted white (White Dove, BM), and oak in natural stain for the top railing to match the handrails down the stairs. This week we stained the wood (including our handrails), and bought new newel posts and stained those as well. Next weekend will be all the assembly (so much for getting it all done in a week, haha). Then comes stair paint stripping, stair staining (landings), stair painting (vertical parts) - this will all take multiple days as we can only do every other stair landing at a time so that we can still get up and down the stairs. So in summary, it's progress (as the title suggests). Here they are on the left - only just over 2 feet! Current newel post - just a hollow box - no real structural support New newel posts - Oak, and now stained (because it's such a shame to paint such great wood) The state of my unused and eventual baby room...construction zone. Decided to stain our railings at the same time - so here's hoping I don't take a tumble! This room was already filled with work projects (hence using the other room too) A pair of bookends made from the leftover railings last year - stained them first to test the colour - great match to the flooring! The stair landings will eventually be this colour too. It's going to take a lot of paint stripping to get them back to their natural wood finish first, though. Then we'll paint the vertical parts white to match the trim.
1 Comment
Mom
11/11/2012 05:20:33 am
Everything in a house always takes longer but it will look great!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
KathleenAdventures in married life, cooking, teaching science and new home renovations in the city! LinksArchives
June 2015
Categories
All
|