Stairs

Yeah, so on one of the hottest days this summer, I decide to get out the power tools again and pull up the old stairs and put on the new ones.



Let's compare them...

And don't think those old brown things didn't fight to stay in place. I think they were green treated 2 X 12s, but they really wanted to stay where they were!


These boards were left over from the ends of the privacy panel. And when I put one on the stairs while I was cutting - to get it out of the way - it struck me that I could just keep using all this wood in other places. (Cuz I'M a tool-using primate...)

The bottom stair is going to be built out into a landing and I'll build down to the yard. In the spring, I get a lot of ice build-up there and between me and Mars rushing down the stairs to our next life's adventure, no one needs to be breaking a hip on the way...



My Project Supervisor's keeping her nose in everybody's bidness as this is all taking place...



...so we know what to do about that.



Of course! You start making fun of that nosey Supervisor Mars!



And she really doesn't seem to mind. Like a good Supervisor, she just blows it off.

86 Spindles

Next step completed...and take a look at the wood grain, wood ya?

It smells fabulous.(I've always wanted to be a gerbil or a hamster because they are surrounded by that cedar smell all their lives...well, unless they are neglected and then they get to smell pee. Not good) But it looks great and I can't wait to see it holding up my railings and that glass of celebration wine I'm having along with something grilled. Yup.


There's nothing I like better than to open my garage door and share my good works with the neighbors in the alley. Put the mitre saw on the tailgate and get (oh oh, I almost said "Git 'er dun!" but I'm not EVEN going to say that), get the saw dust everywhere.

I always instruct them to listen for the screaming and to have their phones close for that 911 call as I'm spurting arterial pulses out of the severed hand. Oh now...I didn't have to go there, did I? Well, no... but it could happen...that's why they call them accidents.

But really, if you have good neighbors, it makes living where you do all the better. (Actually, I think my neighbors fancy me something of a freak show, between the motorcycle, power tools and parade of different people who stop by...) You gotta give people something to talk about. Can't let the neighborhood get dull.


I just wish this was a scratch and sniff, so you could enjoy it along with me.

Railings

Okay, let's review... This is where we begin. So, getting the railings started is what's on the evening's agenda...



So we had notched out the posts yesterday and I ran all over to find galvanized lag bolts for the corner posts, which we'd only notched out to 30% instead of 50%. I figured, why do you buy a 4 X 4 post unless it's to take advantage of the strength of the thicker material? But that meant that we needed to screw into the wood instead of bolting through it, which we did on the other posts. (If I'd thought about it, I would've done some progress shots of the notching out, but again, I'm .25 FTE on this project and photographer is a side line to the real work). Sorry...

Oh, and see that big stack of boards? Those got cut for the privacy side of the railings. I'm pretty close to my Northern neighbor and I don't really care to be watching her dine with her guests... And as luck would have it, the leftovers from cutting the panel boards will do nicely to rebuild the stairs. I hadn't planned on that, but it seems they are only an inch shy of the existing stairs. Perfect!!!



This is where we leave the project, since all staff are otherwise occupied for the next week or so. I have my work cut out for me (Ha!), since I am now beveling and cutting the spindles for the rest of the railings. That and cutting up the rest of the privacy panel boards. As you can see, we only built the one side last night before the beverages came out...power tools get put down at that point. It's just good business.

The next project

You didn't think that I was only messing up my entire back yard, did you?

Oh no! I had to mess up my kitchen and dining room, as well. After I got a new window framed into my kitchen on the East wall, I dissembled this shelf and pot rack. (You can't tell that there's a lot of stuff on there, so I'll add another, more complete photo).



So the basic premise was that I had 2 X 6 main supports against the wall on the two ends and the 2 X 4 legs out front with 1 X 4s bracing horizontally. I ran shelves that were 1 X 4s on top (for pottery and such) and then 1 X 3s below for the cat to sit above the heat vent (which the shelf sort of straddled) or for jars of rice and such.



With the new window framed in, I wanted to open the space up a bit, since the other shelf had cut the access to the area down to only a smaller person's comfort level...I, myself, had gotten a couple of bruises from the corner of the shelf (and I'm no double-wide, mind you). So I thought about framing in the window side of the wall instead of the heat vent side...




So as I'm building this thing, I'm putting stuff on the shelves to get all of it out of my dining room or off my kitchen counters (which have all been as messy as my backyard of late). And the cookbooks have been on my kitchen counters in an unused corner, but now they have a better home.




This is a great shelf to have in a kitchen like mine (from the 1930s when they really didn't do much more than boil potatoes - obviously - otherwise they, too, would've created more storage shelving). This was all scrap wood construction, but it's something that really pleases me deep in my pioneer spirit.



I love the wine glasses up high, because they are out of the way with the plates that have lived next to my sink for more years than I care to recount...I think I'll trim out the fronts of the shelves so they don't look so rough, but I'm content with all the space I've gained and regained from the mess that was once cluttering my kitchen spaces and dining room table.

Ah yes, now I'll put down the power tools and crack a cold one...