If you recall, almost immediately upon moving in over 2 months ago, hubs and I ripped up almost all of the carpet in the house and tore out the banisters. They had to be replaced since they weren't up to code for little ones and, well, they weren't all that pretty.
So for several weeks, after the new carpet was installed and eventually once the hardwood was completed as well, we just had no banisters. We've become used to living with things 'in progress', but it was getting a little dangerous with each passing day that I couldn't see my feet. So...we priced out several options-basic DIY, medium DIY, our preferred DIY as well as several supplied & installed options since hubs had never done banisters before.
In the end, he really wanted to try them himself, and after looking at the options, the ones we really wanted weren't all that much more expensive, and for the sake of a couple hundred bucks, we were both willing to bite the (smaller than expected) bullet and get the good stuff. (Plus, for any other Canadians who know, if we bought them quick, they supplies would have counted towards the home renovation tax credit-perfect!).
So we bought the oak newel posts and installed them first (and you can see where I got anxious and tested out some of the stain):
And somehow the stain we had on hand that had been used to refinish the dining room table years ago matched almost perfectly to the hard wood. I don't think we could have bought custom stain that would have been better. Jackpot!
The next step was a bit trickier. Nothing hubs couldn't handle, but he (I won't pretend I had anything to do with it) had to cut the posts to size and install them equi-distant apart, get them in the floor (mix of hardwood and carpet), bang them in and then screw then to the handrails.
But the end result is fantastic! Nothing short of a pro job I think. And now my mom can stop complaining about vertigo when she stops by :)
