January on the mountain in photos

My feathered friends are gathered near,
Those who chose to stay,
To cheer me on through dull drab days
And chase winter's blues away.

 

(Rea Williams)

 

 

 

 

Our Retirement Home Part Thirty-Six (Stair Railing)

Grosbeaks on the deck

This past week we had our stair and mezzanine railing installed. After looking at various styles and types of wood we settled on maple newel posts and handrails and black iron balustrades. We again hired Felix who had installed the stairways to do this job as we felt it was important to have it done right and done once. Or so we thought. I had put in a small stair railing years ago when we lived in Whites Lake, Nova Scotia but that was a simple afternoon job. Here we were looking at a much bigger job and over $4000 of wood and hardware and I wanted it to look professional. Marie and I first set up the scaffolding in the living room (again!) and brought up my chop saw from the basement. Felix and Jacques work fairly well together and with my supervision and help we managed to finish the job in three days. We were not overly happy though with the way it all turned out and for someone who has done this for 40 years I thought the finished job looked rather unprofessional. We have to live with it but we probably won't have them back. Now I have to stain the wood, put back some baseboard and refinish the stairs that have been scratched, dented and gouged the past year. We hung one of my paintings over the bed and that officially completes the mezzanine! We  are off to Florida for ten days at the end of the month for a mid winter break. We haven't had the snow we had last winter and following some bitterly cold days we are back above freezing and expecting rain the next two days. Go figure..   gws

before picture

putting up half newel post in the corner of the bedroom

drilling newel post for other corner



corner newel up

lining up centre newel post



laying out and measuring iron balutrades

attaching iron ballustrdes



first railing up

second section



preparing stair posts



installing balustrades on stairs

finished, ready for staining

Je Suis Charlie