Bringing Back the Balusters
Once upon a time, in our house, there was a rather lovely Victorian staircase, which went up one flight and then had a much smaller flight at the top, so the banisters curved round rather beautifully.
And then, in 1965, the Communist decided to board it in, to make it modern, and because he thought my little brother might stick his head through the spindles: which are more properly called balusters, so our carpenter, who goes by the name of Nails McFugger, told us.
In those days I was Very Small Indeed but hated all this boarding-in with a great hatred. And once my parents had added a 1977-vintage carpet, and some rather well-worn decor, it all looked like this:
Lovely! Not.
So when it came to be time to redecorate - - oh, okay, about twenty years after it came to be time to redecorate when we finally got round to it - - we decided to Bring Back the Balusters, with the invaluable help of the carpenter known as Nails McFugger, close friend and remarkable lookalike of the artist and film-maker known as John Coombes.
Froggie the cat helped as much as she could, which I have to say wasn't much.
There were some balusters missing. My memory told me that they had all been removed, so I was surprised when some were found under the boarding. But my memory was partly right - some had been removed, for no good reason other than to be rather annoying forty-three years later.
But Nails found a close match for the missing ones, and also replaced what's called the string, which is the curvy bits at the edge of the staircase.
If you want to know more about such curvy bits - and who wouldn't? - you can learn everything you might ever need to know about different parts of a staircase here.
And Mr McFugger replaced the balls on the newel posts.
I remember the old ones with great affection because I used to slide down those banisters as soon as my parents were out of sight, and the ball at the bottom saved me from landing in a heap in the hall on many an occasion.
And here's looking from the top of the first flight downwards. If you look carefully you can see Mr McFugger himself working away in the hall.
And here's the landing:
Not quite finished yet, but Mr McFugger will return to complete it when we get back from Florida (did I mention that we're going to Florida on Friday? Woooohoooo!!!! - - sorry, got a bit distracted there) and then it will be painted.
It already looks a million times better. Thank you, Mr McFugger. I've waited over forty years for this and it's going to be good.
And then, in 1965, the Communist decided to board it in, to make it modern, and because he thought my little brother might stick his head through the spindles: which are more properly called balusters, so our carpenter, who goes by the name of Nails McFugger, told us.
In those days I was Very Small Indeed but hated all this boarding-in with a great hatred. And once my parents had added a 1977-vintage carpet, and some rather well-worn decor, it all looked like this:
Lovely! Not.So when it came to be time to redecorate - - oh, okay, about twenty years after it came to be time to redecorate when we finally got round to it - - we decided to Bring Back the Balusters, with the invaluable help of the carpenter known as Nails McFugger, close friend and remarkable lookalike of the artist and film-maker known as John Coombes.
Froggie the cat helped as much as she could, which I have to say wasn't much.There were some balusters missing. My memory told me that they had all been removed, so I was surprised when some were found under the boarding. But my memory was partly right - some had been removed, for no good reason other than to be rather annoying forty-three years later.
But Nails found a close match for the missing ones, and also replaced what's called the string, which is the curvy bits at the edge of the staircase.
If you want to know more about such curvy bits - and who wouldn't? - you can learn everything you might ever need to know about different parts of a staircase here.And Mr McFugger replaced the balls on the newel posts.
I remember the old ones with great affection because I used to slide down those banisters as soon as my parents were out of sight, and the ball at the bottom saved me from landing in a heap in the hall on many an occasion.And here's looking from the top of the first flight downwards. If you look carefully you can see Mr McFugger himself working away in the hall.
And here's the landing:
Not quite finished yet, but Mr McFugger will return to complete it when we get back from Florida (did I mention that we're going to Florida on Friday? Woooohoooo!!!! - - sorry, got a bit distracted there) and then it will be painted.It already looks a million times better. Thank you, Mr McFugger. I've waited over forty years for this and it's going to be good.
posted by Daphne at 10:18 pm
4 Comments:
My memory of the ball at the end of the bannister was that it was very painful if you had slid down at 60 miles an hour!
I'll be very disappointed if that turns out not to be the carpenter's real name.
Mister? What's with all this Mr? A McFugger is a McFugger. In fact my uncle was The McFugger of McFugger, and my cousin, The McFugger of that Ilk, was so incensed by people calling him Mr, that he changed his name to Jennifer.
Unfortunately he found that being called Miss was even more infuriating, so he took down his rusty Claymore and had Mrs Bygraves, who used to come in on a Thursday for the un-dusting, polish it up for him.
The sight of a wild red-bearded man wielding a five foot sword soon persuaded the present incumbent of the error of their ways.
Yes, why on earth did you get him to put the ball back?
I like my nether regions as they are!
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