The stairs took a bit longer than expected, and are still not completely done. Square balusters are more complicated that round ones. And square mortises on a stringer are more complicated than mortises on treads. One hiccup was that I had made rails to install on the stringers with a dado to receive the balusters. After making them, I discovered the rectangular portion of the “fancy” balusters was too long to fit between the railing and the stringer. As we liked the fancy ones (they complemented the wood rama in the void beside the stairs), I decided to instead just mortise out the stringer directly. Next challenge was that the fancy balusters were .54″ in width while the straight ones (and the dados and mortises) were .50″. This necessitated grinding off the powder coating on the ends of the fancy ones.

Still need to glue in the balusters and install fillets on the lower stairs, and plug the screw holes with walnut plugs and cap one of the posts. Lesson learned – design fully before beginning construction. We should now be ready to get our final approval for the building permit, some 6 years after starting construction.