It would have taken me all week just to take the old railing down but my dad somehow managed to take it apart, cut all of the boards to size, assemble them and put them up in less than 8 hours! It still needs some finishing work but it's already an improvement.
Here is a before shot from several years ago.
Here is an unfinished section which shows how far apart the spindles were. Not only could the small child easily fall through but I bet a grown adult could also have fallen right through!
Hmm, now if I only I had a gate and a whole lot of screen I could just open the door and contain both the cat and small child for some quiet time at last!!!