The Stairs

Enough procrastination. Now I have to get started on building the stairs to the loft.  I always procrastinate on things that I don't really know how to do.

Earlier in the spring I had the building inspector stop by and I showed him the layout of the stairs on the floor... and it was alright, except I had done the stairs 30 inches wide... and he said the code is 33 or 34 inches minimum.  So I sanded the floor and relaid it out at 36 inches wide. The bare minimum is not good enough around here!

I cut out the first few 60 degree treads and got them ready to install, when I realized I should have used my Kreg tool and predrilled some hole to attach the tread from below.  Didn't want to see screws in the top of the nice maple tread.

Only problem is that I could get neither my Kreg tool or even a normal screwdriver into a space of less than 6 inches... so I used my grinder to carve out a notch to receive the screw and then cut off my screw driver so I could then tighten the screw into the stair tread.  Worked great.

Rest assured I won't forget to use the Kreg tool on the next risers before installing them.

Using lots of glue with screws is good squeak insurance!

Also some glue on the back edge of the tread...

Voila!

Got the first three done without any stress... and then I kind of hit the wall.  How were the book shelves going to look?  How was I going to support the treads?  How would the hand rail work?

So Sunday I spent quite a bit of time looking at various alternatives and making some drawings.  Shirley and I talked thru some of the issues and we concluded to bring the posts for the hand rail down to the floor on each corner... as it would help to make the stairs not only stronger, but visually unify the design.

I did a material list... and will need 14- 4'x8' sheets of maple finish plywood... not six like I first bought.  And I will pick up 3 more 4"x4" posts... 9' and 2-12'.

So we are off to Victoria today to get some supplies.

The quote of the day from the procrastinator:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

You don't have to know how everything is going to work out when you start. Just get started and figure it out as you go... one step at a time. (pun intended)