December 2005

This month Mike was pretty much on his own. He started out by removing the old oak plank floor. Once that was completed, he sistered up the joists to make a nearly level surface for our living room floor. Next, I helped him a little bit and we installed the plywood subflooring. Then the fun began with the installation of the second stringer. Mike jacked up the stairs, measured the rise and run on the existing stringer and duplicated a stringer. But, when he tried to install it, it didn't match up. So, he had to take down the entire staircase. Now we use a ladder to get up to the bathroom. That was just before Christmas, after the holiday, he managed to get two stringers hung up and is currently working on refinishing the steps. Once that is complete, we'll have our stairs back together (hopefully by the end of January).

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Here's Mike removing the old oak plank floors. This job created a lot of dust and dirt in the basement. So, we brought in our little shop vac and wouldn't you know that the switch broke on it. So, Mike fixed that too.

Mike and I got the subflooring down in the living room and then he jacked up the stairs to prep them for the new stringer installation.

Well, Mike cut the stringer, but it didn't quite match the original. We latter found out that each step had a different rise and run (which incidentally isn't how we do things nowadays).

Before all the stairs came down, Mike labeled each spindle to help when he puts it all back together again.

The spindles are down and the ugly carpet has been removed. The surface of the steps will need a little TLC.

Now the steps are being disassembled one by one.

Well, this is what it looks like when there are no stairs in the middle of the house...pretty empty! But, at least there is an alternate route to the bathroom and I don't have to use the great outdoors.

Now this is our pathway to the bathroom. We walk into the den/shop, up the ladder and through the giant hole in the bedroom floor. Needless to say our upstairs light is always on so that we can find our way up the stairs in the dark.

Here Mike is laying out the rise and run so that he can cut the new stringers.

Mike is in the middle of cutting a stringer in this shot.

Here's a look at the newly installed stringers. This is surely turning out to be a much more difficult and lengthy process than either of us originally intended.

Here's Mike doing one of his absolute least favorite but most frequent jobs...pulling nails!

Mike stripped all of the steps and then sanded them one by one. I think he's got about 6 more to go...then he'll have to match the finish to the rest of the stairs.

Here's a little "home improvement" job that I tackled...I hung a lovely little house for the birds! I also did a little house cleaning and started a fire with left over pieces and old flooring.

You might be wondering what's in the background covered with a tarp....that my friends is our tractor. Sorry to say that we don't quite have a room for it yet, maybe in a few years.

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