End of Q3

Well looky loo... another year is flying past.  Apologies for the infrequent updates, but I am sure the quality will outweigh the quantity.

Staircase has been built, looks great.  At the end of the last blog we had the main posts in place, since then the angles to hold the treads were all added...

Then the corner wedge steps had to be designed and welded into place...

Temporary treads added so we can once again get upstairs..

Actual treads are drying in the spare bedroom.  Port Orford cedar, that we chose not to send to the kiln to be dried in case they split, they could still split drying naturally but it is less likely to happen.

All of the wall priming has been finished, 2 coats everywhere and some final paint completed.  We finally had a hot enough day to ensure the AC works, although we will probably never use it.  And then it has mostly been about window and door trims.  Each one takes quite a while as no 2 are the exact same.  Measure, measure again, measure and cut and glue, fix and nail.  From my unprofessional eye I think that is how it goes.

Upstairs to complete and then who knows what is next, kitchen? maybe, get all the fixings in for the final electrical inspection? don't know.  It will all get done at some point.

I have had a great year in the garden, lots of veggies harvested and I have winter beds mostly planted up with brussel sprouts, cauliflower (that something other than us is eating) leeks, parsnips, carrots.  Whilst the nice weather holds I will pull out the old bean plants and get the bed ready for next years garlic which gets planted in October.

6 years ago we planted some sticks, and this year one of those sticks is now a tree full of delicious apples!  I need to go and find a copy of the order so I can determine what breed it is. 6 years later and the label didn't make it.

From this...

To this...

  Happy Fall Y'all!

End of Q2

 Here we are, half way through 2021... What?!?!?!

What's been happening? All the drywalling is done, finished, finite, and primed.  And in the case of one room, final paint is done and window trims are started.  

Final paint in the guest room downstairs, no bed, but you've got paint!

Window trims

Sealing up all gaps between the window and the wood to stop air movement...

Then the "jam extensions" window trims popped in.  Look so nice!

Now he is taking a break from painting and finishing and has begun working on the stairs.  We are going for a slightly industrial looking staircase, which should be a good contrast with all of the wood we have going on.  

The treads will be open and 3 inches deep each.  These are on order and are coming locally from Gold Beach and will be milled from local Port Orford cedar.  After they are milled they have to go to be dried, so it could be a couple of months before we get them.  In the meantime he is working on the steel frame and we will use treads from our temporary staircase to get us through.

Stairs as modeled by Mr. 

Two 12 foot long steel tubes are being used for the main struts.

The ends are cut (by hand as he says that is the easiest and most accurate way to do it) to fit the plates that he has cut out of steel sheet.

Feet or top, one or the other, cut from steel sheet...

Feet welded onto the struts...

Top welded on...

Then they are set in place, lots of measuring with laser beams to make sure they are level and then marked up

I'm thinking of skiing down them! simples.

Stairs will continue, next he has lots of angles to weld onto the struts which is what the treads will sit on eventually.

Things continue to move along, and we continue to enjoy the process.  The garden progresses much quicker than the house and the veggie patch is really doing it's thing this year.  We have also started working on other parts of the garden that we have plans for.  However, it's already July and I am sure we won't get as much done as we thought we would when we were talking about it in March.

Starting to harvest....

Catch 'ya soon - laters taters!