Safer steps

The old banister in my stairwell had been painted yellow and only spanned a small portion of the wall. Since I built a half wall I wanted to get a banister that would go to the top of the stairwell. I took some measurements to determine the length of the banister.  FYI - At the hardware store, they have banisters "with fillet" which is a grooved portion on the underside. That's used for banisters with balusters. Since my banister is attached directly to the wall I got a solid red oak banister. It matches the ledge of the half wall I built.

The first part of this safety improvement project was rounding the corners of the ledge with a jigsaw. I didn't want to bruise myself again on the square corner. Anyway, I practiced using the jigsaw on some scrap wood before doing the real thing, which is advisable since "practice makes perfect." Then I sanded the edge to ensure that it was smooth. Then came the long process of applying sealant, letting it dry and repeating those steps with another layer of sealant and 4 layers of varnish for both the ledge and the banister. That completed the ledge, but I still needed to attach the banister for safety improvement number 2.

First I had to find the studs in the wall. I invested in a studfinder that finds the edge and the center of the stud. I marked where the stud centers are with pencil and then marked where the handrail bracket (left picture) and banister needed to be on each stud in order to get the correct angle of the banister. I used my power drill to make holes through the drywall and into the studs for the handrail bracket screws and installed the brackets:

Mom came to the rescue again and held the banister many times, including when I needed to mark the spots for drilling holes for the other part of the handrail banister. After drilling those holes, I recommend putting on the piece most of the way so that there is just enough space to put the banister into place before finishing screwing it in place... Using a screwdriver from above is much easier than below in my opinion.

Garden to-be

 When I was looking for a place to buy I prioritized having a place with a yard. I've already posted quite a bit about the grass and plants I planted in the spring, but my goal was to have a vegetable garden. Now I have a place in my sunny front yard to plant some vegetables and other plants in the spring. On Monday I built a 16 foot by 3 feet above ground garden container with landscaping timbers. I used 15-8 ft landscaping timbers and 8-2 ft rebar to build and secure the garden.

I made the garden 3 timbers high, so I cut 3 of the timbers with my miter saw so that I could get 6- 3ft timbers for the ends of the garden.

I dug out shallow spaces in the ground for the bottom timbers to fit into and set up the rest of the timber to make sure the timbers were spaced correctly. I guess a childhood playing with Lincoln Logs paid off. Once I got the ground level enough I was ready to drill holes for the rebar. I drilled all the way through the bottom 2 timbers but only 1/2 way through the top timber so that it could sit on top of the rebar to stay in place, but hide the metal. I got 24 inch rebar so that the metal would go at least a foot into the ground to secure the garden into place.

This picture shows the rebar going through the bottom timber and partially in the ground.

Once we (my mom helped me a lot this week) had the 2nd timbers in place, we hammered the rebar into the ground so only 2 inches were showing. Then we placed the top timber over the rebar and pressed it all down so that the garden box would be complete.

UPDATE:
I forgot to mention that this large garden only cost me about $36 to build. I also forgot to mention that my awesome Uncle Doug was kind enough to explain how he made his garden, which introduced me to the concept of using long pieces of rebar.

Backyard overhaul

My backyard was a disaster. I had a compost pile (literally a pile) because I hadn't set up a compost bin. My shed was extremely drab. I had a half-taken-down jungle gym sitting uselessly on one side of the yard. Not to mention it was riddled with mosquitoes. Add those disasters to getting a dog... I knew I needed an overhaul.
Since I was adopting my brother's dog from him I asked for his help to get my backyard prepared for the pup.
Here's the yard a year ago:

We cleared brush and sticks, set up a compost bin (which we sealed with a $5 can of wood sealant from the hardware store's discard paint cart... and used the leftover for a shed facelift), tore down the playground, and moved the woodpile near the back of the fence to the side of shed, so the dog wouldn't climb on it to hop the fence.

The yard is still mostly dirt, but the mosquito problem decreased 100 fold and my pup has plenty of space to run around. And my rotting food pile now has a valid compost bin to decompose in.

Sometimes it's the little things...

I'm LONG overdue for blog posting. I've done quite a few smaller projects in the past month and a half, but haven't had time to post about them.

One weekend I decided I was going to paint my front door. I had new doors installed last December.They look nice, but were only primed. Well, the primer was fine for a while, but it didn't really match the white shutters or casing that frames the door from the outside. There were also nail holes that needed to be filled and painted over in the wood between the storm door and the front door.

I taped off the semi-circle window in the door, grabbed a brush and my roller, and got to work. Well, I accidentally got a longer roller brush nap than I intended. Instead of the paint going on smoothly there ended up being a little texture... and I like it! However here's something I found on rules on roller brush nap length:

Use a 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) nap for flat paint on walls and ceilings, 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) nap for rough surfaces like textured ceilings, and 1/4 inch (.63 cm) nap for satin or semi-gloss paint.

Most people probably barely noticed that there were patch spots and even less so that the door was a different shade of white. I noticed though and the painting of the door is just one more thing that makes the house feel more complete..