Second Stoop Post

So of course what should have been a piece of cake had to be a problem, because all of my projects are.  The second rail got put up today, but only after about four hours of dinking around.  I thought it would go relatively smoothly since I had such a problem the day before.  But I couldn't have been more wrong.

I go the rail braces attached to the house rather quickly, and was in the process of finishing up when Kris came out to have a look at my progress.  She then pointed out that the rails were not even.  The height of the top rail on the post relative to the top of the post was about 2 inches different from the first one.  However, there wasn't anything I could do as the previous location of the brackets for the stoop railings had to remain fixed, and were actually at the same height on the side of the house.  The problem is that there is a big slant from right to left when you are looking at the house (presumably for water to run off?).  So the base of the post is actually almost 2 inches lower than the post on the right side.

Since Kris said this was unacceptable, I had to try and figure out how to remedy the situation.  After some thought, I had to go and get myself another post since I had already drilled the post for the screws to attached the rails and if I was going to raise it, there would have been extra holes in it.  I also had to look for something to use as a base to set the flange of the post upon to raise it.  I found what I thought was the perfect thing, a piece of PVC "board" that was supposed to be used for trim.  When I got home however, I found that it wasn't wide enough to fit under the complete post flange, so I had to go back and get a 6" wide board (the first one was 5").  I forgot that when it comes to the size of boards, a 5" board isn't actually 5" wide, but 4 3/4".  

When I got the second pc. of PVC planking, I was able to trace the flange on it, and cut out a block the exact size of the flange base.  Then I could match drill holes, put a couple of quick coats of black paint on it and secure everything in place.  So now the height of the top rail relative to the top of the post is identical, but the base of the post looks much thicker on the left than on the right.  So it's a trade off.  At least it isn't as noticeable as the top of the rail.  Maybe one day when I have more time I can redo the post, cutting off a couple of inches from the top so I can make an identical base to match the one I had to make for the left post.  But for now, I think I can live with it.  Just don't look too closely at it when you come over.