The railing is finally up!

Jared had 3 days off this week so he finally had time to work on getting the railing up. (with the help of A LOT of nagging). We spent the first day finding the supplies and figuring out how to do it and then the 2nd day Jared put it together (with the help of Dave). It wasn't easy to figure out, but in the end it's up and works and looks good. We were just going to paint the whole thing white, but now I'm thinking I want to stain the newel posts, hand rail and the bottom rail so it ties in with the floors and the rest of the wood in the room. I could paint them the dark brown that's on the walls and stair treads too, but I think that might be too much of a contrast. We also need to add moulding to the base of the post to cover the metal plate and buy a baby gate for the top of the stairs. I'm hoping we'll find a gate today.