day forty-five

Whew! Looks like there was drama behind the scenes and Roman is no longer working for Vince. Vince also thought Roman had finished a lot more than he had done... 

Today Vince was full of promises as usual and I am hoping he comes through this time. 

Potts came and filled in some holes in the floor and fixed some other spots.

Yesterday morning Dave took the balusters off in preparation for the new ones. We are also getting new newel posts and hand railings, but thought we would keep those on until we have the new ones ready to install. 

Scary with the kids! They have been really good about staying away from the edges and at night we put a line of chairs along the space below, which is near their bathroom. I also put a battery powered lantern on one of the chairs so they can see really well. Thankfully this part has been going a lot smoother than we thought- no one is throwing things over the edge, trying to look over the edge etc... We are staying downstairs as much as possible and not playing on the landing at all. 

Thank goodness. 

Last night Dave sanded and filled in holes prepping it for painting. 

Today our painter primed and painted the bottom fascia of the banisters white (the light wood part on the ground). 

One coat of primer and one coat of paint. 

Another hiccup: Vince brought over the newel posts to have them painted. This was the first we had seen of them and it wasn't good. I had given him pictures and this wasn't at all what I was looking for. (I am very detail oriented and he has since told Dave that he thinks he needs to pay attention to details more since a lot of people care... yup!)

In searching for ones we like and measuring things we found out that these one wouldn't work size-wise anyhow. They are 5.5" wide and the fascia is 5"... 

This is what he brought. 

Way too curvy and detailed for what I am looking for. 

We found these 5" ones online and Monday after Vince talks to the installation guy to make sure they will work (they have adjustable sleeves which will make it so they can be installed without a bottom trim piece), we will order them. The hiccup is it looks like we are without banisters for another week or two!  
 

Here is an idea of what they will look like. We are going to get a bigger (6 1/4" bottom) for the bottom of the stairs and then the 5" ones for the rest.



(For a point of reference the ones we have now are almost 
3 1/2", so the new ones will look a lot bigger)

The balusters will be square and white like the ones below. (These newel posts have an extra trim piece at the bottom that ours won't, but our hand rails will be stained to match the floor like these are.) Ours will also have the white fascia not wood like this one.
Confused? 

Wait a few weeks and I will show you :)

Vince says Monday is going to be busy and I sure hope so!