Removing an Old Friend

Pete came this afternoon to start looking at what to do about railing on the other side of the stairway. We really have had some trepidation about this in terms of getting something that will be stable and sturdy. Pete's suggestion was to get a 4x4 post somehow anchored and build around it. We weren't sure how we would be able to do this, so we thought maybe we'd start by taking out the temporary post and seeing what was down there.

The temporary post was put in by Pete last summer, and has been the reminder of how far we've really come since June. When he put it in, Pete wanted to make sure the girls were safety conscious when they came upstairs, so he put a note on it.



After we took it out we then cut into the subfloor to take out a small 2x4 block. We were able to vacuum out the insulation and see that if we took a little more out we could cut a big enough area to slip a 4x4 post down 9 inches and lag screw it into a support post.


Once again thanking our good luck, we were off to the hardware store to get a post.

We set it in place, plumbed in both directions and screwed it in.


After that we put two screws in through the side of the top step to hold it even more securely.


Pete then reattached the handrail to the new post.


I needed to put a finishing touch back on the top.


I will get more oak this week and start staining and varnishing so perhaps we can build the other side of the rail next week.