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Busy weekend
May. 8th, 2022 06:11 pmYesterday, I built stairs. I'm 85% happy with how they turned out.
I'm very glad I replaced the old stairs, I was able to physically pull it apart with very little effort. I'm surprised they hadn't collapsed already. The railing post that I didn't pull out of the ground on the left side of the photo, I can physically lift it an inch or two up and it rotates. Yikes.
I hate stores and Home Depot on the weekend was no exception. I picked up the planks I was going to use for the treads and risers and thought they seemed a little thin but I had hit the point of hating everything and everyone in the store so I bought them. They are slightly too thin and they weren't the right size to fit the pre-cut stringers that I used. I got around this by taking the 6 inch wide riser plants and installing them two per stair instead of the 10 inch wide planks. I also forgot to sand down the edge of the railing. I jumped around on them and ran up and down them a couple of times to make sure they weren't going to die immediately.
I spent the first hour and a half figuring out how to attach the stringers (through the decorative board into the beams behind it), and getting the first stringer adjusted to be level with the weird ground situation. There was concrete laid at some point and the asphalt laid over it and the edge of the asphalt was broken away where the first stringer was laid. I ripped a 2x4 partially down the side and center to create an L shape and raise it up. The rest of the stringers I was able to lay on the asphalt although I needed to take a quarter inch off most of the bases in order to get them level.
After that, it went fast and smoothly other than the planks issue. I wrapped up about 5 hours after arriving and stood and contemplated the shed of doom for a bit. I'm now thinking the shed was built on the hill rather than being a pre-built one. On unstable cinderblocks. It's 12x17 feet. I'm not sure I can skid it down the hill given the shallowest part of the hill is directly towards the well cap and house and it would be going sideways.
I may just deconstruct it and rebuild it to be honest. Mainly for safety reasons. I'd need to jack it up and stabilize the cinderblocks before that because they are precarious.
This morning, I took Mara for a walk up the main road. I don't normally because it doesn't have a big shoulder and people drive pretty fast. Sunday mornings are quiet at 6am. We wandered up the road and back and on our way back, the neighbor's horses noticed us. One didn't give a single shit and continued eating their hay. One was nervous and paced around and the third was curious and came over to the fence. Mara was confused and alarmed but didn't try and bolt or bark so I'd say it was a funny success.
After breakfast, I ran out and grabbed groceries. Then I helped C and JP plant onions because it's easiest with a water wheel transplanter but you need a third person who can move quickly enough to plant things. I did two loads of laundry mid-day. Soaped and rinsed the last bit of alpaca fleece 1, which I'm very happy about. I'm waiting to start washing the next fleece because it was decently windy today but I'll be able to use my new system and do a whole fleece at a time.
I made pastry cream this afternoon and started making shepherd's pie. I got the potatoes cooked and the cheese and such added in but ran out of energy so I'm eating potatoes with some stuff thrown in for dinner tonight and I will cook the meat and bake it all tomorrow. I also need to make yogurt and I have egg whites left from the pastry cream so I'm making no churn ice cream sometime this week.
I'm very glad I replaced the old stairs, I was able to physically pull it apart with very little effort. I'm surprised they hadn't collapsed already. The railing post that I didn't pull out of the ground on the left side of the photo, I can physically lift it an inch or two up and it rotates. Yikes.
I hate stores and Home Depot on the weekend was no exception. I picked up the planks I was going to use for the treads and risers and thought they seemed a little thin but I had hit the point of hating everything and everyone in the store so I bought them. They are slightly too thin and they weren't the right size to fit the pre-cut stringers that I used. I got around this by taking the 6 inch wide riser plants and installing them two per stair instead of the 10 inch wide planks. I also forgot to sand down the edge of the railing. I jumped around on them and ran up and down them a couple of times to make sure they weren't going to die immediately.
I spent the first hour and a half figuring out how to attach the stringers (through the decorative board into the beams behind it), and getting the first stringer adjusted to be level with the weird ground situation. There was concrete laid at some point and the asphalt laid over it and the edge of the asphalt was broken away where the first stringer was laid. I ripped a 2x4 partially down the side and center to create an L shape and raise it up. The rest of the stringers I was able to lay on the asphalt although I needed to take a quarter inch off most of the bases in order to get them level.
After that, it went fast and smoothly other than the planks issue. I wrapped up about 5 hours after arriving and stood and contemplated the shed of doom for a bit. I'm now thinking the shed was built on the hill rather than being a pre-built one. On unstable cinderblocks. It's 12x17 feet. I'm not sure I can skid it down the hill given the shallowest part of the hill is directly towards the well cap and house and it would be going sideways.
I may just deconstruct it and rebuild it to be honest. Mainly for safety reasons. I'd need to jack it up and stabilize the cinderblocks before that because they are precarious.
This morning, I took Mara for a walk up the main road. I don't normally because it doesn't have a big shoulder and people drive pretty fast. Sunday mornings are quiet at 6am. We wandered up the road and back and on our way back, the neighbor's horses noticed us. One didn't give a single shit and continued eating their hay. One was nervous and paced around and the third was curious and came over to the fence. Mara was confused and alarmed but didn't try and bolt or bark so I'd say it was a funny success.
After breakfast, I ran out and grabbed groceries. Then I helped C and JP plant onions because it's easiest with a water wheel transplanter but you need a third person who can move quickly enough to plant things. I did two loads of laundry mid-day. Soaped and rinsed the last bit of alpaca fleece 1, which I'm very happy about. I'm waiting to start washing the next fleece because it was decently windy today but I'll be able to use my new system and do a whole fleece at a time.
I made pastry cream this afternoon and started making shepherd's pie. I got the potatoes cooked and the cheese and such added in but ran out of energy so I'm eating potatoes with some stuff thrown in for dinner tonight and I will cook the meat and bake it all tomorrow. I also need to make yogurt and I have egg whites left from the pastry cream so I'm making no churn ice cream sometime this week.
