As I keep repeating, I have a lot of finishing work to do. I confess, some exhaustion is showing itself in the form of scattered focus at this end stage. However, for the past about two weeks I've had the motivation and deadline of Jennifer's request to me: Can you please get the banister up by the before a visit by father, Sukie and some of the NW family come?
Thus the time came for me to finalize the design and get realistic about the practical details for the metal and wood balustrades and banister that I had mostly finished designing.
The part on the stairs is more complicated, given the angles and changing dimensions that they bring. First came the wooden elements, and then dowels that would later take the small metal pieces.Below you see it with the metal in place, and the handrail on top.
Since I work alone now, I have to time things like this for Jennifer's return from work, or the weekend. I can do a lot alone, but things like getting this almost 17 foot long rail onto all those verticals is just not do-able with only two hands.
We also needed and upper portion to separate the little "nook" at the top of the stairs from the stair opening. After getting all the angled pieces into place, this was a piece of cake! BTW, like the lower part of the stairway, the metal here is not stainless. It's intended to get a little rusty and "patina-ed," and the oak is black oak from that dying tree that we had cut and milled at the start of all this.
It got done in the nick of time, and the house was a lovely place for a boisterous family meal:
Since the summer heat and dry has gone its way, we've finally begun having the plants brought in. This is an aspect of the project we've sub-contracted...... No energy to learn a new discipline. So FINALLY, things are looking a little less bare outside:
Meanwhile I have been harvesting from my garden, and from the woods. I took this picture for the blog a few weeks ago, when I found the first chanterelles in our woods.
Thus the time came for me to finalize the design and get realistic about the practical details for the metal and wood balustrades and banister that I had mostly finished designing.
The part on the stairs is more complicated, given the angles and changing dimensions that they bring. First came the wooden elements, and then dowels that would later take the small metal pieces.Below you see it with the metal in place, and the handrail on top.
Since I work alone now, I have to time things like this for Jennifer's return from work, or the weekend. I can do a lot alone, but things like getting this almost 17 foot long rail onto all those verticals is just not do-able with only two hands.
We also needed and upper portion to separate the little "nook" at the top of the stairs from the stair opening. After getting all the angled pieces into place, this was a piece of cake! BTW, like the lower part of the stairway, the metal here is not stainless. It's intended to get a little rusty and "patina-ed," and the oak is black oak from that dying tree that we had cut and milled at the start of all this.
It got done in the nick of time, and the house was a lovely place for a boisterous family meal: 
Since the summer heat and dry has gone its way, we've finally begun having the plants brought in. This is an aspect of the project we've sub-contracted...... No energy to learn a new discipline. So FINALLY, things are looking a little less bare outside:
Meanwhile I have been harvesting from my garden, and from the woods. I took this picture for the blog a few weeks ago, when I found the first chanterelles in our woods.
