Day 1274: The big game

Big game 7 tonight vs the Bruins .. I'll be up at 12am to watch it.

Go Leafs Go!!!!

Day 1258: Something old and something new-el

With the house empty and nobody to complain about me leaving tools and other dangerous things around the house, it was time to kick off the 2 weeks of DIY flooring. A lot of work to do but with about 8 solid weekend/holidays of time, I was hopeful that it all could be completed. 

Some obligatory before pictures of the flooring before I got started. 122 years of wear and tear on the floors have taken their toll. Not sure how many of these floorboards are original, but some clearly aren't and many I've already replaced. The others have been sliced and diced a few times over the years as electrical and pipes were installed. And now that all the key water, heating, electrical and gas works have been finished, I could finally cover everything up.

The first major task was to install a new newel post base on the stair case. This would hold the newel insert that we'd chose at a later date. I was specifically told not to choose one without consulting Care, so I obliged and got a multi-part newel. We have about 60 different posts to pick from now - hopefully that will give her enough options.

The first step was clearing everything out. Seems like we keep everything except for 10 year old wizards under our stairs. All this had to be moved and the paneling ripped out. 

I ordered a 90cm base as I wasn't sure how long I would actually need. The idea was to mount the post between the first "starter step" and the second step to give us a bit more space in the hallway around the bend. I also ordered a bullnose or rounded step for the same purpose. I also really like the look of this setup on some of the Pinterest photos I've seen on similar houses.

The old newel base was cut off at the step level and as far as I could see, not fixed to anything. Ideally the post should be fixed to a floor joist to provide adequate support. This was what I planned to do. The other complication was the stair string (the notched part that holds the treads) needed to be cut to allow for the recessed newel. And yes, stair parts all have very strange and confusing names - see here for an explanation. 

As I was cutting the base, I needed to make sure the stairs were properly supported before the newel was installed. A 2x4 was fastened to the joist to hold things in place. 

With the temporary support in place and the first step removed, I could now cut the string to accommodate the newel base. Again comes the magical floating saw.

My suspicions were correct and the old newel base was only held onto the floorboards with a couple of nails. 

Now the fun part came - notching and cutting the newel to fit in place. This took several attempts to get right - lots of action with the saw and wood chisel here. It didn't help that the joist wasn't true on multiple planes.

I picked up some pretty meaty 8.0 x 100 mm coach screws to fasten it all together. These were some solid fasteners, perfect for what I wanted.

Everything was fastened using the coach screws - to the joist, to the string, on both sides, on multiple planes to increase the shear strength. Believe me, this thing is now very solid. It took the better part of the weekend but I wanted to make sure I got everything right on this one.

Finally the new newel is installed. Everything is solid and some extra work for my quads as I'll need to skip a step for the next couple of weeks until the new step is installed.

And here is the first weekend's carnage in our garden. 

Day 1257: DIY-athon

Starting the monumental task of putting down more floor in the ground floor. But not before starting off with a builders breakkie!

Care and the kids a back in Canada for a long visit so I've been given my task list .. and it's BIG.

But at least I'll have an empty house to work in.