We waited until the sun crested the mountain and the air outside heated up a bit to begin. I was still a little apprehensive about doing this ourselves, but we had the materials and the old stairs had to be replaced. Like I wrote in yesterday's blog post, it was time.
We dusted off (literally...) our cordless Ryobi tools and got to work. Measure twice, cut once...it's a good way to prepare to build a new staircase. We thought about assembling the new staircase and then attaching it to the deck after it was fully built. So, SO glad we didn't do that. We found out taking off the old staircase then putting up the supports then attaching the steps was the way to go.
After several hours, we had the steps in place and it was time to test them out. Our verdict = amazing! It's been so long since the staircase wasn't shaky and creaky. We could almost not believe it.
We were able to take a break a few hours after noon. My wife and her mother (who, was a lifesaver and helped paint the railing...) fetched fast food for lunch. As I took my first break of the day almost inhaling the burger and fries, it took me back to when we worked on our house as it was being built. We basically lived off of fast food for months. Eating lunch today was an almost surreal experience, the way those memories flooded back.
Thanks to some advice from a neighbor, the paint we were going to use for the steps wasn't going to work. It was obvious we wouldn't finish today. We waited for the paint on the railings to dry then moved them and all the tools into the garage.
We' re resting now. And even though today felt so much like it did seventeen years ago, it's evident we're no longer in our 30s. We're going to feel it tomorrow--we're already feeling it now.
Tomorrow we'll take a break and not work on the house. Thankfully, I have Monday off of work and so we'll be able to finish Project Stair Repair then. But, until then, we need a well-deserved break.
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