Ah . . . the smell of newly cut wood!

I know my Friday post is usually Can't stop looking at . . . but today I really want to share my new and wonderful bannisters with you!

If you remember, this is what they looked like originally - yuk! Horrid and unsafe.

This is what they look like now.

Drum roll please . . . ta da!

Up the steps from the spare room to our bedroom.

From the top of the stairs into our bedroom.

There will be a half round newel post cap going on top of the half-newel that is fixed to the wall - the one the carpenter had was slightly too big, so he's coming back on Tuesday to fit one for us.

Crouching in Torin's doorway - looking down the landing.

I love love love it! The work took the carpenter two days to complete and he's done a brilliant job. Can you see where there are carved chamfered bits out of the newel posts? He carved them himself! He wanted the whole thing to be as sturdy and safe as possible so he used thick pieces of timber and as you can see from the second picture, rather than just fixing the new posts on top of the landing, he actually carved chunks out of them and positioned them so they are drilled into the side of the landing. He also screwed down a load of the floorboards, so hopefully once the new carpet is laid, there'll be no more waking the baby as we try and creep out of her room once she's asleep (and born of course!).

Now I've just got the quite big job of painting all of that lovely fresh wood - I need to treat the knots, prime the wood, undercoat it and then gloss it. However, I don't think I'll mind doing it really - it's just such a pleasure to get up in the morning and look at wooden bannisters rather than the monstrosity that was there before!