My newel post - post

As I recall, July last year was a busy month! One of the big decisions at that time was to remove a wall surrounding the stairs in the hallway and build a hand rail. Lately I have been really appreciating our decision, as the hallway is a very comfortable and functional space.

We spent a long time figuring-out the railing in our hallway landing. After studying stair parts catalogs from local lumbar yards, we found that most parts were available off-the-shelf with exception of the newel posts. Newels are the large columns at the junctions and terminations of a railing, and is often one of the focal points. Box newels were quite common in the era or our home, and luckily we like the look of this design. However, as we need two and one-half newel posts for our hand rail, the cost of these components alone would have broken our budget. So, I decided to design and build our own newel posts.

Most of the surface pieces were originally drawer fronts from a local Building 9 supply store. My dad and I spend a weekend afternoon with his radial arm saw, cutting 45 degree angles on a tall stack of parts.

In order to make a reliable and sturdy hand rail, the surface parts were secured to a solid poplar core. A local lumber yard planed the cores to my specifications and made a few door jamb parts. The surface parts are secured by liquid nails and finishing nails, as well as wood glue near the seams. The raw core was visible on the lower half of the post during the assembly stages, and actually was exposed until the final finishing stage when skirt pieces were attached.

Caps for the newels were created by mounting miniature crown molding on top a 1 inch thick oak plank. By wrapping the molding around a center post, a flat surface was established at the top where I can set toys or a water bottle. The square plank was cut large enough to provide a lip around the molding where I can set a pen or my glasses. Even though it looks like a small part, I was nervous during assembly, due to the high visibility and regular handling.

During a big push towards the end of the year, we stained and varnished all the handrail parts as well as door jambs and casing for the second story broom closet. My youngest brother Ed, my mom and even my father-in-law each helped with the process; however, I wanted to be responsible for the the posts, caps and skirts. I was rather anxious during the finishing stages, since the design and assembly required so much time and energy. (I figured that if the newels were ruined at this point, then I had better be the the one to blame.) Happily, all the parts looked great after a few layers of stain and varnish!

Amanda has a great article describing the assembly process, but here is a final photo of the finished product, as intalled in our hallway upstairs. What a big project, and what a big difference in the quality of our home!

Carpeting!

The nursery, stairs, and upstairs hallway were carpeted just before Christmas.  The Guest Room's carpet wasn't ready until just before the new year.
But, before the carpeting could be installed on the stairs, the old carpeting had to be torn out...

Looking Down

Looking Up

Mmmm....mint green and salmon pink

 Ahhh!  Much better!

What a difference!

It is really coming along nicely.

Looking towards Guest Room

Standing in front of Guest Room doorway

It doesn't look like the same upstairs anymore!

Close-up of the hall and stairway carpeting

Hall Closet

 We used some leftover Pergo flooring from my Craft Room

With the trim added

Nursery

As soon as the carpet installers left, I went upstairs and rolled on the nursery floor.  LOL!

Guest Room

It's About Time for an Update!

I'm finally able to update!  Yea!  I apologize for taking so long.  Jim has been working on a post about his newel posts, but he is taking forever with it, so I'm going to go ahead and post some pictures of the installation.  

The Shoe Rail

1/2 Newel Post Up with 1 Side of Balustrade

Coming Along

We don't have blueprints for the house; so instead, we placed a blue note and a 2011 nickel in the newel post.

Almost Finished!

Looking Good!

Happy Birthday to me!

The upstairs hallway is probably starting to look more like it used to prior to the 1960's.

Jim will hopefully finish his post about the installation one of these days.

Mutiny! I'm Taking This Blog Back!

After Avonlea was born, we decided to split our 2 blogs between us.  I would write mostly on Bloggle Baby, and Jim would take over Blue Century Home.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Jim isn't much of a blogger (as is quite evident); so, I'm reclaiming this blog.  ^_^

Since we've made quite a bit of progress, and it would take me forever to give each piece justice, I'll just do a quick recap of the past 3 months.

We utterly failed at finishing the nursery before Avonlea was born.  In fact, we are still working on it.  However, we have made some significant progress on the upstairs.  The walls and ceilings are painted, trim is completed in both bedrooms (except for the closet baseboards), carpeting is picked out and ordered, and we have finished staining all the stair parts and hallway woodwork.

Here is a picture of Jim holding Avonlea in the nursery before the window trim was up. 

Our sliding 5 panel closet doors that we bought way back in April-ish.

Our 4 panel door

The windows with custom-made window sills

The trimmed-out Guest Room

This is a picture of Jim ironing on the veneer for the landing.

The stair landing balusters lined up in our garage for staining.

Jim has spent a lot of time and effort on building the newel posts.  I would post pics, but I'll leave that to Jim. He wants to write about how he built them, and I don't want to give away any spoilers.  All I will say is that I think they look great!  :)

As I've mentioned earlier, we have ordered the carpeting for the upstairs.  We have chosen Shaw Stainmaster carpeting.  The hallway and stairs will be a medium brown with a leaf pattern.  The nursery will be a light beige and the guest room will be a light grey.  Jim wanted to go lighter in the hallway and stairs, but I was adamant not to go too light.  I don't feel like having to constantly clean the carpet (especially on the stairs).

Hallway and Stairs:

Style: Lasting  Color: Amaretto

Nursery:

Style: St Amien II  Color: Bridal Veil

Guest Room:

Style: St Amien II  Color: Mineral Alloy

Right now, they are scheduled to install the carpeting on Dec. 22nd.  If all goes well, Avonlea might have her nursery by Christmas.  ^_^*  Well, almost...her closet won't be completed by then since we want to try something fancy besides just a single rod for clothes to hang on.

Stairway to Heaven? Nope, Just the Upstairs

Apparently, we've been super productive this month.  Once more, my in-laws came up on Sunday and helped us to install the hallway drywall.  I am once more amazed at the progress.  They are drywall installing gurus or something.  Our upstairs hallway is actually starting to look like a hallway.  :)

Here are some pics of their work.

 Looking up from the stairwell

 Looking down the hall toward the Nursery

 Looking down the hall from the Nursery (Ignore the mess in the Bonus Room/Renter's Kitchen)

Looking down the hall toward the Guest Room

There is only a little bit left to drywall and then the mudding can begin in the hallway.  Yea!

Of course, after all the drywall was up, Jim noticed that the illuminated switches in the hallway didn't seem as bright as they should be.  Jim checked it out, and he discovered the the current was active even when the lights were in the off position.  Hmmm...not good.  He was afraid that maybe a drywall screw nicked a wire or something, but he couldn't find any live screws.  He did some more investigating.  Fortunately, it was a simple fix and he didn't have to take down any of the drywall.  It turns out that the 2 switches at the top of the stairs were faulty.  He has since removed them and will replace them.

We recently had our water tested for bacteria by Davis Water Treatment for peace of mind.  Ever since our septic failed, I've been worried that our well water was contaminated.  I've been using bottled water for cooking, drinking, brushing my teeth, and other activities since.  I didn't want to take any chances with me being pregnant and all.  It also didn't make sense to have the water tested until after our new septic system was installed.  Well, the test came back negative for bacteria.  Yea!  This means that we don't have to shell out even more money to have the well chlorinated.  

We've seen some new wildlife in our yard and house lately.  On Sunday, we saw a skunk come moseying up our neighbor's driveway.  It went into the bushes beside their house.  It was at this point that we saw their cellar door open by the bushes.  Oh no!  We called our neighbors to let them know that they might have an unwanted and quite stinky house guest.  While Jim was on the phone with them, the skunk appeared once more and kept on walking and exploring the yards.  I hope it doesn't decide to take up residence nearby.  PU!  Jim came across a mouse in our basement the other night.  We bought some mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter.  The next morning, we found the mouse in the trap.  We're not sure if there are more of them, so we baited the traps again.  So far, no more mice.  I've been enjoying watching the finches at my new finch feeder and have managed to get a picture with both types in it.  I took it from my craft room window.  Our camera doesn't have the greatest zoom, so I cropped the pic.

Gold and House Finch at My Feeder

Sorry, it is a bit blurry.

Well, we've researched appropriate style/vintage newel posts for our stairwell landing and have decided that the best fit would be a box newel.  Unfortunately for us, this also seems to be the most expensive kind of newel post.  :(  Vintage/salvaged ones are just as expensive as new ones.  They can be upwards of $300 or more per newel.  We just don't have the budget for that.  So, Jim and I are playing around with the idea of making our own.  I'll keep you posted on what we inevitably decide.

This is the style box newel we like the best:

Whether or not we'll be able to replicate something like this is another story.  LOL!  Our's might end up being a little simpler since we do have to make 2 1/2 of them.

If you are interested, I have recently added 2 new entries into the Spirit Watcher page on this blog.

Enjoy!

Busy Bees!

Once again, my in-laws came out to help with the house renovations.  Thank goodness!  We could really use it!  LOL!

This past weekend, they worked on finishing leveling the floor in the hallway, insulating the hallway, and continuing to mud the nursery and guest rooms.  They all have done an amazing job, and it is really starting to come together.  The hallway looks awesome!  I'm excited to see the finished product.  We have really made quite a change in that hallway by knocking down 3 walls and adding in a corner closet and built-in.  It is going to look so good!!!  I can hardly wait!  We are still on the hunt for the newel posts, spindles, and handrail for the upstairs landing.  If anyone knows of a place they can recommend, please let us know!  We don't want to spend more than $100 per newel post (we need 2 1/2), yet we want ones that are at least 4 1/2" in width to make them feel more authentic for the age of our home.  

Picture Time!

Leveled Floor in Hallway

Insulation on Ceiling and Walls in Hallway

 (Looking Towards Nursery)

More Hallway Insulation

 (Looking Towards Guest Room)

Mudding so far in Nursery

Mudding so far in Guest Room

One of the nights when we were all eating dinner, we had an unexpected house guest.  Jim looked up to see a  big ol' fat ground hog staring in at us from our front door stoop.  We've never noticed a ground hog before, so it was a complete surprise.  He was just sitting there as if waiting for us to invite him in.  LOL!  He didn't seem afraid of us at all.  After a few moments, he calmly walked off to lounge under one of the bushes we have out front.  Maybe the septic guys destroyed his home when we had the new septic installed...

Now I Know We Are Crazy!!!

*If you want things to make sense, you might want to scroll down to the post titled "Hooray for New Septic Systems!" and read up the blog.  If not, you will end up reading backwards through time if you start with this post.*

Here is how our Independence Day holiday weekend broke down:

Saturday

Jim and his dad designed and built the scaffolding for the stairwell while Jim's mom and I worked outside with the new planters that I wrote about earlier.  I was pretty impressed with their design.

Here is the scaffolding.

The individual beams across the top in the pic on the left can be removed for people to go up and down the stairs.  I referred to them as the "pregnancy barrier," since I can't get up the stairs unless the final beam furthest from the camera is also removed.  I could probably climb over it to get upstairs, but there is no way I am going to climb back over it to go downstairs.  I don't feel like taking the express way down. 

At some point, Jim's dad suggested removing the other 2 walls surrounding the stairwell.  This has been an idea I've brought up to Jim before, but he has always come up with reasons not to do it.  These other 2 walls are not original to the house.  They are walls previous owners put up when creating the rental space upstairs.  I believed that there originally used to be a guardrail surrounding the stairwell opening and not walls.  Jim's dad agreed with my theory.  Now that my FIL was on board with the idea of removing the walls, Jim decided to give the idea more thought.  This is another "now or never" project, so it does require a lot of thought.

*Pros to Removing the Walls*

~the space would really open up and be easier to move things around

~there would be more light in the hallway

~the hallway is currently super narrow already and would become even more cave-like after we finish leveling the ceiling and floors

~we would be bringing the home back to its more original state

~the area would be airier/breezier

~we most likely wouldn't regret taking the walls down in the long run, but might regret not taking them down when we had the chance

*Cons to Removing the Walls*

~Jim would have to redo some of his rewiring that he already has done

~we risk not finishing everything before the baby arrives

~children might decide to either try to squeeze through the landing spindles, attempt to climb the guardrail, or decide to toss/drop things down the stairs between the spindles.

~this would cost more $ than keeping the walls

Sunday

Jim was still debating with himself whether or not to remove the walls still, so Jim and his dad worked on other projects upstairs including more electrical, framing in a small corner closet with triangular built-in, and framing a future linen closet that won't be fully created until the bonus room/upstairs kitchen is renovated.  Since I wasn't allowed up there still during demolition, I'm not sure of everything they did.  I know of one casualty, though.  Jim accidentally dropped a tool in-between the wall.  It dropped all the way down to the first level, so we won't be able to recover it until we remodel the family room...and who knows when that will be.  LOL!  Poor Jim.  At least it wasn't an essential and/or expensive tool. 

Monday (4th of July)

Decision day!  

Our final decision was to remove the walls!  Yea!  I am over-joyed!  :D  I am so glad Jim has finally seen that it would be so much better in the long run if the walls were gone.

*Happy Manda Dance!*

Jim's parents and youngest brother (Eddie) came out to celebrate the 4th of July as well as helping out with demolition.  They once more closed themselves upstairs via the scaffolding and got to work.  I remained downstairs and went along with my business of updating this blog.  While the guys were destroying things, my MIL was mudding the drywall in the guest room and nursery.

Here are some pictures of the hallway/stairwell.

Before

This is what the hallway looked like when we first moved in.  It illustrates quite well how narrow it is.  The doorway to the right leads to the stairwell.  The doorway to the left is to the bonus room/renter's kitchen.

After the Drywall Removal

Looking down the stairwell

Looking across stairwell

 That is the nursery doorway straight ahead and the bonus room doorway to the far left covered in plastic.

View from the nursery doorway

After the Stud Removal

Looking up from the stairwell

Looking across the stairwell

 That is the balcony door that is open that used to lead to exterior stairs for the renters.

View from the nursery doorway

The door covered in plastic leads to the master bedroom

Looking down the stairwell

If you look to the immediate left of the stairwell on the floor, you can see where the old newel posts and spindles used to be before the walls were erected.  It's sad.  The original guardrail and newel posts were probably thrown out.  :'(  We're currently on the hunt for new newel posts and spindles that are in our budget and look Victorian-esque.  We will need a total of 2 1/2 newel posts (the half is for the newel post that will be against the wall) and about 30 or more spindles.  Current code wants spindles to be no more than 4 inches apart to prevent children from getting stuck between them or slipping through them.  I measured the distance between the original spindle marks, and they were 6 inches apart.  In the meantime, we will close off the hole in the floor with the scaffolding when we are working up there to prevent anyone from falling off the edge.

If anyone knows of newel posts and/or spindles for a decent price, please let us know.  We will end up needing about ~10ft of guardrail.  The guardrail needs to be a total of between 34 to 38 inches in height to be to code.

Here is a picture of our corner closet and built-in so far

The closet won't be very big, but it will be able to hold a vacuum cleaner and other cleaning supplies.  The triangular built-in will consist of a cupboard on the bottom, a fake drawer in the middle, and open shelving on the top.  The shelving will hopefully be too high up for a toddler to try to climb it.  It would be nice if the cupboard doors had glass, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea with small children.  *Sigh, sacrificing for them already.*  LOL!

And, that is where we stand in our upstairs project.