All railed up!

 Here are the two (really dark ...meh) pictures I snapped right before the sky broke open and a deluge of rain threatened to wash us right into the ocean miles down the road. 

While we knew we really wouldn't have enough time to put up the next piece of railing before all hell broke loose (rain, thunder, lightening and little light make for a bad DIY setting unless you can move your project indoors), but we just -had- to rip our the last two pieces of rusty ugliness.

 Here are the husband and Little Man madly screwing and hammering away at old rusted bolts reluctant to let go. This time the angle grinder had to come to the rescue.

Like a breath of fresh air! Literally. So nobody could go flying off of our porch we plopped bottom and top rail into place until we had time and better weather to continue with our porch railing project.

Just shy of 12 feet this was our longest piece of railing (the sides only measure about 8 feet) requiring a total of 33 spindles spaced 2 1/2 inches apart.

Here you have the side rail for comparison. It's so short, it's cute!

Mio came to check out our progress wondering what on earth Mom, Dad and Little Man were doing outside.He prefers chasing grasshoppers around in the back yard, but visiting the porch cat and keeping an eye on us and the street while dozing nearby wasn't too bad.

 Here you can see the two slots on the columns that I mentioned in the last post. They are designed for a wooden rail to slide right in and work perfectly!

Bottom rail with spindles slotted in and awaiting the top rail.We finally got the hang of it and zip-zoomed through building and installing railing No. 2 and No. 3. (Now the husband can't wait to build our fence, he says).

Aaaaaand the top rail is ON! Instantly the porch felt cozier. We are going to add one or two 'feet' to the bottom rail to help support the weight over the entire length and to keep it from sagging but for now we just wedged two small cut-off pieces from the rail underneath.

The picture doesn't quite capture the change in 'attitude' of our house. The solid, visually stronger wood railing not only adds historical character to our house (which was sadly lacking in the thin wrought-iron railing) but visibly anchors the house, especially the ground floor, by re-introducing horizontal lines to the architecture.

Of course, we are not completely done. We still need to pick up the final top rails, have beveled edges cut into those and install them, caulk around the spindles to prevent moisture from getting in and finally, paint the railing, but, man, it's looking so so good!