After a 4 year wait, I have installed the hand rails for our upper and lower stairs. It took a little bit of doing with some compound angles and a custom forged bracket (by yours truly) on the upper (attic) stairs and a fight to get a warped pit of lumber strait on the bottom (basement) stairs.

They need to have the edges on the ends eased, a little filler in a few trim screw holes and a final coat of paint before calling the task 100% done. I also need to put up the banister and paint the stair stringers on the basement stairwell, but that is another project 🙂