Common and Proper Nouns. A common noun names a general person, place. or thing. examples: I went to the city. The man was kind. A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. Always capitalize the first letter of a proper noun. examples: I went to San Francisco.
The width of the steps is flexible. A wide deck staircase (5 feet and beyond) feels graceful and looks it too. A narrow one, for example 3 feet wide, might feel cramped. Very wide steps are great...if you have the room for them and they work with your design. These usually work best with a single set of deck stairs.
Back to the hardware stores, to look at what they stock. HomeDepot has the Williamsburg style columns like what is currently on the house. And their deluxe railing was very nice. They even had a nice stair railing kit. But one big problem, the railing the stock is only 5 feet 7 inches in length, as is their stair railing kit. The distance between the columns on my porch are (starting from the left) 6 feet 4 1/4 inches, 6 feet 3 3/8 inches, and on the right side 7 feet 4 inches.