Today was long but then again everyday is long. I picked up my main man Rudy at 8:45 and took him to the house to get to work. He has been the only consistent person to keep accepting the job. I am glad he is a hard worker. I left him in charge of cutting all the treads and risers to 35” for the basement treads.
I went with Daniela and Pedro tile shopping. I don't like shopping for anything. I get restless. At least we have narrowed our choices of hardwood floor to three. Personally I like the cheapest option or should I say most economical. It actually looks good and the most important part is that Daniela likes it. Before we returned to the house we made a strategic stop at Famous Dave's BBQ. We had a feast of meat with meat on top and meat on the side. Meat!
My favorite wood flooring option.
Today I will get my clothes dirty unlike yesterday where I played the role of boss. While I was gone Rudy managed to fix the kitchen exhaust, cut all the treads and clean up the place. Now we began to make the stingers. It is pretty easy to do but extremely hard to perfect. I used my framing square and square edge to draw the outline and Rudy started cutting. We had two stringers built within the hour. Enough time until I had to take Daniela and Pedro home. Once again Pedro found every puddle to roll around in. We definitely make our washing machine work hard.
17:00 and my day was just beginning. After returning to the house I took Rudy home and went to my home away from my other homes called Home Depot. I was determined to finish the stairs tonight. I bought some liquid adhesive and as one does while at the H.D. I bought more stuff.
My goal was to finish the stairs by 22:00 and it was 18:30. Si Se Puede! Luckily I was able to reuse all the treads and risers. They did not fit perfectly but it is close. I will have to install a veneer panel or wood filler on the risers to cover some of the holes. At 23:10 there were stairs! Most importantly they did not fall. There is some creeping noise but once we have the wall on the side framed on the left side we will attach the stringers to it. Then the noise should stop. I hope. The stairs look fine but they pale in comparison to the professional one. It was so nicely made. I wish they would have built it correctly.
18:30 Stringers up at ready to install the treads/risers
20:10 Making progress but more to go. The risers are 8-1/4" with 10-1/4" treads.
23:10 Stairs complete. More to do but there are finally stairs to the basement.
What is looking nice are the IKEA kitchen cabinets. I finally had time to put it together with no interruption. Earlier in the day Daniela notice that the cabinets were not level. She was correct by about a ¼”. Good eye. It was easy to put the cabinets together as it is a proven system. I hear good and bad things about IKEA cabinets but if you take good care of it like anything else it should last a long time. Very late. Time to go home.
Kitchen cabinet boxes installed and ready for counter top measurements.