Guess what ladies!?  We have a special guest writing for us today!  He is my cute hubby.  
I love him.  He is sweet, handsome, the best daddy, a great provider and I just recently learned how majorly skilled he is!  He practically re-did this entire remodel we just bought.  I’m really excited for you to see all the fun things we’ve done in our old  new house!
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This is Mark- Natalie’s other half and the rest of the girls’ other fifth. 

We bought a house last summer and spent nearly every evening and weekend there for 6 months. We redid nearly every item in the home! Over the coming weeks Natalie will share many of our updates we did and try to give you an idea how we kept the budget tight! More pictures to follow! Today I’ll steal the keyboard and give you the first glimpse.

One of the projects where we saved a bunch of bucks was re-building the banister over the stairs. The old one was dated and really worn! The contractor who came over to help give estimates before we started the demo thought a new banister would cost somewhere in the $1200-1500 range. So we got to work.

Step 1: Cut the old balusters in half with a saw and pull them out of the railing. When you pull out the old balusters, you also must remove the fillet spacers between each old baluster.

Step 2: Because we wanted to put wrought iron balusters in the new railing, we had to replace the fillet in the gap left behind by the old pieces. 

Step 3: Re-stained the hand rail. We decided to keep the railing and the end posts to the banister because it was still sturdy- and to cut on cost. We had help from N-Hance to change the color and put new finish on the rail. 

Step 4: The trickiest part of the job was the math. We calculated how many balusters we’d need to span the distance of the railing, and made sure to end with an odd number in order to maintain our pattern (every third baluster was a “basket” design). 
*Note: make sure you space the balusters according to code in your area.

Step 5: The new balusters come in a standard length- longer than most handrails call for. We took ours to a local machine shop and told them how long to cut each one. 

Step 6: We drilled all the new holes on the top and bottom of the railing. We went only 3/4″ inch deep in the bottom and further into the top rail so we could slide each new baluster into the top and set them in the bottom to hold them all secure and level. We chose to install a ‘foot’ on the top and bottom for a finished look. Each baluster was glued in place and then the new feet clamps were tightened. 

The banister update has really updated our living room! We are thrilled with the results and it makes it even more enjoyable that we did it!

Here’s the rough cost breakdown:
Fillet:               $90
Balusters:          $195
Chop fee:         $50 (from the machine shop cutting to length)
Feet (clamps):   $96
Glue:                $10
Wood Finish:     (turns out I work for this company :))
TOTAL:             $450

We’ve only scratched the surface- watch for more of our projects in Natalie’s upcoming posts!

Other Posts to check out:
DIY Home Projects
Nursery Redo
Decorating
Bathroom Side Table
Mudroom Lockers

Linking up here:
I Gotta Try That
Fine Craft Guild 
If It’s Not Baroque 
Him & Her
Housewife How To’s
Gingersnap Crafts