Stop and Stair

We had some ugly and shaky rails going up our main stairs. I don't have any recent pictures, so these are the ones from when we bought the house. They haven't improved since then, trust me.

Before the holidays we wanted to have a nice, safe railing to make sure ladies, gentlemen, and children of all ages were able to traverse the stairs. It started with a lot of math and planning from me. Good thing that geometry was the best of my math subjects. As many of you know math isn't one of my strengths. Surprisingly my calculations turned out to be pretty solid :-)

We took down the old rail--which came out disconcertingly easily...

Then with some help from the family we set to work on the rail. We measured...

 Cut and set the newel posts.

Spent a lot of time getting the rails in place. After the rails were securly attached to the newels, the spindles were installed.

After a day and half of work, the rail was installed! After a few adjustments I set to staining and poly-ing. One more coat to go and then it should be set!

Behold! How is that for some DIY?!