Present Joys

Today Jordan spent all day installing spindles. 24 spindles—three on the lower run of steps, nine on the platform, and 12 on the upper run of steps. And he is done!

It’s hard to describe what a big difference it makes to have the balustrade completed. I was concerned about the visual weight of the spindles, since the 1.5″ diameter felt large in isolation. But I think everything looks just right in context. I’m really beyond pleased at the progress and at the end product! There are many small details I have yet to finish. I’ll take some better photos once everything is officially done. For now, here’s the completed balustrade.

Jordan was back at work on our stairs today. It’s today and tomorrow, and that will be it, Lord willing! The panel on the side of the platform is now finished, the newels are set, and handrails are cut and ready for spindles. We routed out the primary newel so I have room to make electrical connections for the light that will go on top.

I’m particularly pleased to see the nosing at the very top of the stairs finally go in, as well as all the little pieces that transition the skirt boards into horizontal baseboards, and into the doorway’s plinth on one side.

Tomorrow these spindles will go in!

My spindles are finally done. I coordinated to pick them up on Saturday afternoon, and since then I’ve been in a race against the clock to fully prefinish them before they’re installed on Thursday. These are finished according to the same schedule as everything else in the foyer: dye stain, two coats of oil-base polyurethane, sand to 400 grit, two coats of gel stain, then at least two more coats of poly. Doing all of this to 24 spindles, plus leaving time for things to dry and cure, takes longer than one would think.

These spindles were produced exactly to my designs. There are three lightly different lengths: two which allow for the beaded design to follow the angle of the handrail up the stairs, and one other length for the horizontal platform balustrade. They were originally slated to be hand-turned by an Amish guy up in Holmes county. However, he decided the project was too much for him to tackle so he coordinated for Buckeye Spindles to get them done for me using a CNC lathe. I’m disappointed they don’t have the hand-crafted element, but overall, the quality is excellent, and they are taking the stain nicely.

Now that the stair platform is completely covered in flooring, it’s time to bring it all to a consistent finish. I spent most of the day sanding and putting a first coat of finish on the floor.

One part of the job was sanding down the existing and salvaged boards back to bare wood.

The stair nosing took an enormous amount of sanding as well, since it ended up being quite proud of the brand new boards in some places.

Then I put an initial coat of polyurethane on everything to see where everything stands. Even after everything was sanded back to bare wood, the new boards differ significantly in color from the old ones. This is something I will mitigate with more layers of tinted finish—another day soon.

Now that the foyer bookcases are installed and the side area is fully finished, we can finally get the platform nosing installed on the stairs. Jordan came back today and put it in, along with the newel post that sits on the corner there. The stair platform now finally has a consistent floor surface. Big improvement.

He is scheduled to return one week from today to complete everything else. In the mean time, I’m still waiting to get my spindles, which will need to be prefinished before Jordan installs them next week. And I need to get this platform floor finished to the point where spindles can go on top of it. There is still an awful lot to do!