We painted and repaired and tried to hide the condition of the front steps until it finally got a little dangerous as the wood was soft and wouldn’t hold the railings tight and there was some rotten areas. I had to bite the bullet. I had no idea how to make stairs but I’d just use the old ones as a guide. I took them apart and used the pieces as a template and made new ones. It was a lot of work but I love how they turned out. I used pressure treated wood that I stained and used an outdoor varnish on except for the yellow pine treads which I painted all sides of. I also took the railings off and got the rust off and repainted them.
Here is my first look at how the stairs were made.

There were 2 railings that were refinished the following photos don’t show the second one but since has been installed.
And then after a whole lot of work, this was the finished product.

Now if only they would look like that after having salt and the snow shovel hitting them all winter. They’ll need some touch up every year to keep them nice. Before I installed the steps, I dug out about 4 inches down and added sand and gravel back up to level so the stairs wouldn’t be sitting on damp dirt like they did with the old stairs.