The advantages of owning an old wooden house means that you have the opportunity to find your inner Bob the Builder, or in our case, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. A couple of months ago, a digger came by and dug. He took away our staircase, and left us with this.
Welcome to our abode.
So, our entire area around the house is now a gravel bed, so we thus had to take the necessary steps to put back a staircase so that we could stop upsetting our neighbors, and also the fact that my mom is here, and she can’t be expected to walk up and down wooden crates and Styrofoam boards. So, I got the boys working.
Give me a call when you guys are done mmkay?
The wifey went and got the necessary supplies, and we also pulled out our favourite tool in the shed (or at least, what will be in the shed we shall eventually build).
DeWalt is my friend
One little caveat about the staircase was that it can’t be permanent for the time being. The gravel they’ve put into the hole around the house needs about a year for it to settle, so there can’t be any concrete foundation to the supporting pillars. So, the whole contraption has to be able to be removed for re-installation next year. So, it starts with the main beam that defines where the deck will be. The three pillars will be temporarily resting on the three stones embedded in the gravel. Hopefully it won’t sink too much over the course of the year.
Main beam and pillars - stones on the ground are our temporary foundation.
Once, that was sorted, then it’s a matter of getting the support structure built, without permanently affixed pillars, it’s a bit of a tricky task to get the various bits screwed together without the whole thing falling down. But, between the two of us, it came together, and was pretty stable.
Wifey checking alignment.
Support structure is done.
Then it was a matter of just screwing in the floorboards on the deck. Unfortunately, wood does not come delivered in pieces that are perfectly straight, so there are some bendy bits.
Deck done.
Unfortunately, our door is pretty high up, and the standard stair frames are not long enough. And since it’s the pinse holiday here, the shops closed early and so we didn’t have a chance to get the material to make the stairs yet. SO, back to wooden crates, and Styrofoam again 🙂
Deck done, but we had a problem with the stairs.
Part I done, stairs will be finished next week.
We’re pleased with how it’s turning out, and hopefully the weather will give us a break so we can finish it up next week. There will definitely be a post update.