Guys, I'm a little embarrassed to say that it happened again. That's right, folks... Despite being very careful the past few weeks, on Halloween night I found myself tumbling down the stairs... again!
It must be an inner ear thing or something because no matter how careful I think I'm being, this seems to happen:
In fact, I think it's safe to say that this is almost EXACTLY what happened.
I'm not seriously hurt and I know it's a little funny, so I give you permission to have a chuckle at my expense. I've been clumsy since I was a child, so this isn't new to me.
On this particular occasion, Corey was on the porch setting up for Halloween and Barkley slept right through my little accident. I had hoped he would rush to my side to help me up, but greyhounds are lazy and I was out of luck.
Corey thinks a proper banister will help protect me, since the old model is attached to the wall along one side and can't be gripped properly. I may have preferred replacing the stairs with a slide, but I suppose this was a more practical idea.
Which brings me to the title of this post. It's punny, right? In all honesty, I tried to enjoy Game of Thrones but I never really became immersed in it. I blame the fact that Corey initially sold me on the series by claiming it was historical fiction. (Although he claims this isn't true and will deny it to the end.) I actually watched several episodes thinking that the dragons were symbolic and that "Winter is coming" was a metaphor for a philosophy of saving for harsh times ahead. Seriously, imagine my confusion and disbelief when there were ACTUAL dragons hatching! Now, I enjoy the fantasy genre as much as the next gal, but I need to mentally prepare for it. The harsh introduction to fantasy elements ruined the series for me! ...But I digress...
Corey began by removing the old banister. We were worried it would be challenging but it was screwed in and he managed to remove it with a screwdriver and crowbar.
We found a little surprise underneath. Corey scraped it off, patched the wall, and now we're ready to touch up the paint.
We decided the new railing would go on the right side of the stairs so that we could mount it securely to the wall, instead of just mounting it against the banister posts at the top of the stairs.
We chose a height based on what would be comfortable for me but still relatively easy for a child to reach, and Corey measured and marked the wall.
Corey enlisted my help to draw a chalk line. I HATE chalk, so I wore gloves, but the process is pretty neat. Basically, we each held an end of chalk covered string against one of the marks Corey made on the wall...
... And Corey snaps the string leaving a blue line of chalk on the wall.
Is this cool, or am I easily amused?
Next, Corey mounted the railing. We had chosen hemlock wood (which is what our dining room table is made of) and gold coloured hardware.
Corey insisted on mounting the new railing on the same day he removed the old one... for my safety. :) At this point, it was functional but not very attractive. We debated between painting it white to match our stairs, or staining it Jacobean to match our hardwood floors.
By the way, I know the lighting is brutal in some of these pictures. I'm still considering the type of fixture I want to light our staircase.
We also needed to sand the rough edges and I got to play with the power sander outside. I'm not afraid to admit that it was pretty darn fun!
In the end, we decided to try staining it first. We figured we could always paint it as a last resort. When we had the floors sanded and stained, Mr. Sandless left us some extra stain. I gave it two coats.
The grain is actually quite lovely and we think we made the right choice. While we still need to touch up paint on the left side, but we think our new banister ties our staircase in with the rest of the house.
What do you think? Ideally, it would have been about a foot longer, but it will certainly do the trick for now!
