Back to Working on the House...sort of Part 2

The frustrating part of finishing a house is finding the time to do the projects. Well, that's not entirely true....we will have plenty of time later on this winter when Phil is laid off for a few weeks from the Marine Sciences Centre - it's more along the lines of being able to work when the weather is pleasant. We still have to set up our cutting tools outside & when it's howling & raining out - we can't very well do that....So, slowly but surely we are getting things done.

One of our big priorities has been to make an outdoor storage area for the pellets that we burn in the pellet stove. When the decks were built, we knew that under the back corner, we would be installing some walls to protect the central vac system & the generator plus giving us room to store the 18 kg bags of pellets.

This is Phil's first wall - we don't have any one coming in to help us with these projects that need completing, so Phil had to figure this one out on his own. Of course, it doesn't help matters when I come down & offer my opinion...







At least the day was nice & dry!







This is the big, black wall - covered with some roofing paper & still waiting on the hardy-plank siding...who knows how long that will take...At least we can store some bags of pellets along side the wall & tarp them up.


This past weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) Phil had some days off & we decided it was time to install the spindles in the staircase going up to the loft. This was a safety issue as well as a requirement for obtaining our occupancy permit with the building inspector. We tried to get in some 'professional' help, but he didn't show up, so we continued on our merry little way....

We didn't feel it necessary to go fancy with the spindles, so we just had some 2x2 fir wood sent in (months ago) & we preped them for installation.

You can't really see from the photos, but the wood has some gorgeous swirls - the grain - that are further highlighted when they are varathaned.





We snapped our blue chalk line, got the clamps out & started screwing them in place. The real tricky part of the job was figuring out the spacing of the spindles. There is a maximum distance they are allowed to be - 4 inches - something to do with a child's head size.....really - when babies' heads are small enough to fit through a spindle, they aren't anywhere close to being able to get to them!! Also - if there is a distance requirement for the spindles, why isn't there a requirement for the open space between each tread?? I'm more concerned about the little people slipping on the stairs & falling through the steps than I am of them getting their fool heads caught inbetween spindles...

So we measured twice & made sure everything was level & got them screwed in place.

My job was to sand the spindles down before installation & then fill in all the screw holes with wood filler (instead of using wood plugs - much easier), then sand them all down again & start the varathaning process.





This is the finished project. 3 coats of varathane - hopefully that's enough & a much safer way to climp up & down the stairs.

Next.....wall caps & the railing on the other side of the stairs - of which, we haven't come to an agreement as to how they should be done.....

It will be interesting to see what happens to the spindles over time. We've noticed that the fir has darkened since we've installed the stairs (treads, landing & railing, as well as the one wall cap - not shown in picture).

Another little project we did this month was to hang up my spider plants & my hoya (as seen in staircase photo). They weren't too happy sitting in the window ledges & I found some great heavy-duty metal hangers that would stay secured to the wall with the weight of a plant.




There are 3 along the window wall & add a bit of wildness to the place. I might have a bit of a problem with keeping them trimmed & contained within their pots. Or I might have to start a spider plant nursery...

I just need to figure out how to get that hoya plant to flower - don't want to wait 5 or 6 years!

And yes - I have plants living on top of the pellet stove! I inherited a 'cactus' garden is a huge copper pot & this is the only place large enough for it. The top of the stove doesn't heat up & we only have to fill the hopper with pellets once every 2 weeks or so. A great conversation piece!

Well, that's it for now. We are experiencing some computer issues, so instead of taking advantage of another lovely sunny day, Phil is trying to figure out how to save our files without loosing too much information.