Thanks guys, glad the pics were interesting. Tom, yes, this absolutely was a 'must do' before the baby arrived or spousal support for the project would have dropped through the floor.
(She does admit now though that she's impressed it turned out like it did - I can't really fault her lack of confidence, I was far from sure myself when it started)
I can't claim to be an expert by any means, but if someone in the future is going through this, please feel free to hit me up and I'll share what I learned during the project.
Now that the riser is done, I'm getting really excited for the chairs to arrive (~2-3 weeks). Hopefully between now and then I manage to get some sleep.