May 10, 2009

Stair Rails

Other than the final plumbing inspection, which is still bedeviling us, the stair rails that we had installed here are the last piece of this renovation.

In between, we’ve laid on a few more coats of varnish to the stairs to the basement, as well as to the second floor.

Our GC could not find anyone to do these kinds of rails (he’s a bit old-school) so we ran into Rich and his dad at Luna Welding ( www.lunawelding.com ). Rich is more than a contractor, he’s also an artist working in metals, and his dad is a carpenter. Rich came over and we all discussed the myriad options in posts, rails, and materials (there is a ton of choices) so as always we decided to keep it as simple as possible. Polished steel hardware (sprayed with a sealant to prevent rust), stainless steel cable, and an oak handrail to match the stairs. The price was $6600.

Rich showed up with his crew in a few days and put in the posts, then came back a few days later and finished the job. He even took care of varnishing the railing for us. We’re happy with the results.

Finished product above and here:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358898

A couple of more first floor shots:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358913
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358899

And a couple of shots from the second floor:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358901
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358902

And some shots my wife took during the process:
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358897
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358903
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358905
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358912

During this process we were able to get all our artwork up on the walls, so it’s really feeling like home. The AC guy came by to charge the unit for the first floor, just in time for those 90 degree days, and, we’ve got our library unpacked and put away. Since I haven’t had the luxury of having it all in one place for a number of years, we took advantage of CraigsList to grab a few Billy bookcases locally. Here are some shots of the completed basement library.
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358907
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358908
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358909
http://www.pbase.com/dentontay/image/112358910
(We can’t close the pipe chaise until the final plumbing inspection)
In a couple of weeks I’ll do a final post, detailing the screw-ups we made and things we should have done differently, and that will be it! Time to go back to reading.

Posted by denton at 12:22 PM | Comments (5)

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