building for our future

Since my last update, the holiday season has passed us and we find ourselves into a new year. This is more or less the beginning of the third year since this project “officially” started and we have a couple more months to go until completion. (Some outdoor work may or may not be done in that time frame.

What’s very nice, however, is that we are fully engaged with interior finish work, starting with the stair railings and soon to move on to the 11" wide pine flooring and trim work. The slate for the foyer and bathrooms will be arriving in about two weeks and we recently picked out our door hardware, too.

Relative to the stair railings, Pete from Slabaugh Custom Stairs Ltd., got to work on Saturday the 29th, starting with the railings on the loft landing in our great room. (in the original house) I had already removed the old barn wood railings (good riddens!) as well as the pine floor nosing at the edge of the landing in preparation for this work. As Pete got the new newels installed, I followed behind, reinstalling the nosing so it would be ready to support the balusters under the railings.

Pete returned after the New Years holiday and has been working meticulously to get everything installed correctly and with precision. Since all these wood parts will be clear finished after dying them to color, the newels that touch the walls have to be carefully coped so that there is no gap of any kind between them and the wall. No caulk can be used...this is just plain great woodworking craftsmanship. As I write this, he has about one more day's work to finish the installation and I’m extremely pleased with the results.

Below you’ll find a number of pictures from this process, but first...a quick look at the exterior on Christmas Day after the gutters finally got up. I though it might stop raining at that point, but alas, it stayed wet for a few more days.




And I just couldn’t resist “trying out” the hall table I made for this specific spot earlier in 2007...yup, it fits!



Stair work in progress: