Our brand new, hand-crafted railing is here!! But, read the story, first…I’ve saved the best for the last!

We just celebrated our first year in our new (1972) house. It took us a year, but we finally said, “so long,” to the horrible-terrible monstrosity that took up prime real estate in our front entrance. It was supposed to be a railing or a half wall or something…we just called it, “U.G.L.Y.”

Here’s how the formerly dark brown entrance, with a darker brown front door and the giant monstrosity staring your right in the face, looked (the monstrosity and surrounding walls were covered in tongue-and-groove pine boards coated in high-gloss Varathane.

Then we painted…and it definitely helped…

But, the MONSTROSITY just had to go. Remember these photos? Can you believe how U.G.L.Y. that is? And, it was worse before I painted it!

And, the matching bench…gag…

Finally, we said, “ENOUGH!” Then we rolled up our sleeves, got out our sledge hammers and worked with a vengeance. (It was, actually, quite therapeutic).

A lot of stuff happened after we demolished that thing…like many chats with our local Home Depot guys and countless hours spent on YouTube trying to learn how to build a railing. What we learned was that there was no way in hell we could ever do this. Enter: Jasmin of Quality Stairs! Our savior and one of the finest craftsmen you’ll ever meet. Here’s what he created for us…

So, all’s well that ends well! I still have some touch up painting to do and a couple of ugly brown doors to paint, but we’re almost there.

Hmmm…now, what to do about the ETCHINGS the previous owners did in the bathrooms…

Ya gotta laugh!