The Undertaking

My husband is on vacation this week. My dear, sweet husband who just can't stand relaxing. Who built a deck while on vacation last year. Who re-organized every square inch of our basement when on vacation last spring. Who is staining and painting our new banister and all 111 new balusters as I write this.

This is just one of four rises, in addition to the long section of railing on the third floor hall. The previous owner was a d-bag who decided his box spring was more important than the railing, and he busted up the balusters all to hell when moving in and out. He half-assedly glued them back together but the damage was done. In the two-plus years since we've been here everything that was already busted has become so again, thanks to two little kids who aren't and weren't tall enough to reach the railing. And they busted up some new ones all on their own! So we had to have the whole thing replaced. The old balusters were original to the house and basically irreplaceable, so it was an all or none job.

Since he's got nothing else to do, SOB painstakingly taped every baluster, sanded, stained, varnished, sanded again and re-varnished all of the wood to match our floor. Once that dries he has to tape the railing and paint all of the balusters.

I am constantly thankful that I married a man willing to do such things.