DANGER Will Robinson, DANGER !!!!

My in laws recently had their flooring replaced upstairs, and as part of that decided to re-do the hand rail and stairs.  I volunteered to go over and help slow down the process and generally get in the way of any forward progress for the project.  After all, I am good at that  (hey, we all have to be good at something)

We packed the back of the truck with a handy selection of tools and headed over to their place.  We got the tour of the stairs all torn up, the new parts all painted / stained and ready and we got to work.

We got all the tools setup in the front yard to help with how far we would have to walk, and started working on the "how are we actually going to do this"

First thing to deal with was the stairway opening upstairs since there was no railing and one wrong move would mean bad things for someone.

We cut holes into the sub floor under where the newel posts go for 2 of them and were able to notch the posts and screw them to the structure

The other 2 sat in a bad spot and that wouldnt work, so thanks to an idea from the LOML, we took a 1" dowel and set those posts into the floor on a dowel (and some long screws toe'd in)

Here are the posts just sitting their holes

you're right, it is a nice looking floor isnt it.  I was doing my best to try and not scratch it as I was working up there.  Should have brought some floor pads or some rosin paper, but I didnt...  and I didnt scratch it either...

and long story shorter, through a series of guesses, and ideas, and mistakes, we did manage to get the railing up.

We also got the risers nailed to the stairs, they need to be painted and then we can put the treads on.

Unfortunately we ran out of time and I ran out of steam before we were able to move any further.  We will have to do the treads and stair railing the next time.

DD