Cousins Construction Recap

I know, I know,   It’s been a long, long time but I have been very busy and, unlike my younger cousins, I cannot work 10 and 12-hour days.

 

That was Gatorade they were drinking.

You’ve probably forgotten, but my cousins came from Wyoming and Montana to replace three sets of exterior stairs.    If you haven’t forgotten, then you’re probably wondering if they managed to accomplish that or if I have to use a ladder to get onto my decks.

They started with this one that collapsed from rotting wood and heavy snow load.

This one would be next.  Rotten treads and cracked stringers.

 

Have no fear; the cousins are here.   

 

Bud is five months younger than me and I’m 82.   His brother Bob is five years  younger.   Just a whippersnapper so he got to handle the enormous circular saw that my neighbor brought over for the project.   Besides that, he’s a journeyman carpenter.   His second career.

 

Bud is a jack of all trades and master of several.   Until he retired and sold his business, he dealt primarily in heating and cooling and sheet metal.   He’s remodeled his own place and worked on others.   Right now he has a huge garage/shop project going as well as helping his daughter add-on and remodel her new house.

 

Anyway, back to the stair story.

 

The first item on the list of lumber I bought should tell you everything, but I’ll tell you anyway because that’s what I do—I tell stories.

 

First item:   12 ea. 4x12x12.   

 

In lumber-ese, that means I bought 12 pieces of lumber and they were 4 inches by 12 inches by 12 feet.  That’s all the material it took to replace the two sets of rotten stairs to my decks.   

 

Oh, and a bunch of “L” brackets and a bushel of screws.

The green marked lumber is for my two sets od deck stairs.

The red treated lumber is for exterior stairs to the second floor of another building on my property where my friend Julie lives.

 

We no sooner arrived at my place after I picked them up at the airport in Anchorage than Bob wandered outside without saying anything.   Bud and I were talking and noticed that Bob was missing.

 

Right then we heard a crash and found Bob well into demolishing the first set of stairs.  The heavy snow load this past winter caused the rotting stringers to break lengthwise and down went most of the steps.

 

Bud got into the act and soon the area was littered with rotting wood.

 

 

And that was that for the first night.   A couple hours and the site was ready for the next step.