Closet Progress

The boxes are built and installed. The douglas fir plywood is cut and ready for staining.

I know how I get to spend the weekend.

Next Up: Closet Shelving

We got a new toy! We're going to have to get rid of more stuff from the garage to make room for this!

Last Friday we went and bought the plywood to make the cabinets for the bedroom closet so hopefully, progress will begin soon. As a reminder, this is the plan.

I haven't made much progress on the back stairs since my last post. I bought a can of paint for the balusters and we scrubbed it down to get off most of the dirt, but now we need it to dry out enough to sand it. I need at least a week of dry weather to refinish the wood. 

Front Porch is Finished

Jeff from Hand Made Home finished our front porch. It looks amazing. It took three coats to get a nice even finish.

This was the before.

He obviously removed the old decking and replaced it with new wood.

The cedar for the back stair railing has been cut out. We got some help with the cutting from a guy named Tracy Livingston who used to be a contractor and is trying to get back into the game.

They were removed after this photo so I can paint them before the final install. Since we're out of the paint, I'm basically waiting for the next paint sale then I'll go buy a gallon.

I'm also waiting for several days of nice weather so I can sand down the deck and apply a new finish. Given the current forecast, it could be a couple of weeks.

Railing Progress

I've planed down the cedar and our installer did a temporary install on these boards so we could get the spacing right. There will be additional pieces of wood installed at the top and bottom that will hide the ends of the slats.  

Once the lower portions are cut out, we'll mark the diamonds, take out all the wood and cut them out. We'd also like to route the edges of the top rail. Then I'll start finishing it. I've learned from my past mistakes; we'll be finishing before the final install.

I was planning to paint them, but we seem to be out of that white color paint. But we do have lots of the opaque white stain we used on the pergola and fence, so I'm considering staining instead. I really don't understand the difference in durability.

Stair Rail Demo'd

It's too late to turn back now. We have bought the materials for the new railing (and OMG it was not easy to find clear cedar 2x6s). This time we're going to paint it before it's installed. The newells seem to be in good shape so I think we'll leave them alone; we need to fill some nail holes and repaint them before we install the new rails.

The rails came out really easy because they were so rotted on the bottom. Demo only took about an hour.

I am also planning to clean and refinish the decking while we have the rails out. I'll need to wait for several days of good weather before I can get started so it will probably be a couple weeks. We're expecting rain for the rest of the week so I'll focus my efforts on painting the new lumber.

Replacing Rotted Railing

When CDR installed our back stairs in 2012, they put in hemlock! In Rainy Oregon. Outdoors. Had they taken one minute to ask us what we wanted, we would have approved and paid for a more durable outdoor wood. But what is done, is done. And now the backstair railing wood is all rotted out. 

We found someone who can help us replace the current railing so we're going to try and do that in the next few weeks, but we are going to change the design so hopefully there will be less problem with water seeping into crevices and rotting out the wood. And I'd really like to install flat sawn balusters rather than plain spindles.

My plan is to use this style of install from the Lowe's DIY website: How to Build a Front Porch Railing.

I'm hoping by sandwiching the balusters between two boards with nothing filling the gaps between them the water will just run right through. And I'll be painting and/or staining before the final install.

And I'm hoping to do flat sawn balusters that are more like these, from the Pretty Handy Girl website.

We're working on our material list right now and we'll be buying them as soon as we figure out the final plan.

Front Planter Destroyed

New renters arrived to move into the house next door on Monday when our snow was so bad and they decided to drive across our front planter (even though I ran out and told them it was there) and then they got stuck. Duh. Then they spent a couple hours trying to dig the truck out of it. Sigh. I feel sorry for all the plants they killed. =(

I don't have any recent photos, but this is how it looked on Jan 2. The ajuga was looking pretty good for being in the middle of winter. And the ferns were getting established. I'm most disappointed about the purple iris being destroyed. I had also planted quite a few bulbs in there, but I don't really remember how many and which varieties. Presumably, they were crushed, but I guess we will see.