Scary Cabin

We finished up our last trip the cabin by cutting a couple of the laminate boards for the stairway. Finishing up the stairway was the goal for this trip.

Both the rise and tread are too wide for a single laminate board so each is composed of two laminate boards. The process for each rise and tread goes like this:

1. Cut two laminate boards to appx. 31 inches long (cutting off both ends so they’re square) on the miter saw upstairs
2. Glue the two board together to form one 31” x 11” board
3. Measure and rip the board down to proper width for the step (rise or tread) on the table saw in the back room
4. Set the angle for one side of the step using a sliding T-bevel gauge
5. Use the T-bevel to set the miter saw to the same angle and cut one side of the board
6. Set the angle for the other side of the step using the T-bevel and measure the width of the step
7. Use the T-bevel to set the miter saw to the same angle again and cut the other side of the board slightly over-sized
8. Test fit
9. Trim a small amount from the board until it fits
10. Check the board depth and possibly rip it on the table saw to get it sized correctly
11. Glue the board to the step
12. Pin nail the board to hold it in place

That process takes at least 30 minutes and is needed for every single rise and every single tread. There were only a couple of steps where the angle was 90°, the rest were just a bit off up to about 2°. The one thing when doing stairs like this is that you don’t want gaps between the laminate and the sides, it just looks bad.

I did get a bit faster towards the end, but most of that was because I rough cut and glued up a bunch of boards Saturday night so that I didn’t have to do that on Sunday.

There’s still a bit of work left as not all the steps have the bullnose trim installed. We just ran out of time. But finished stairs look soooo much nicer than unfinished.

Genny spent a bunch of time outside checking over the yard and cleaning things up. She swept off the entire deck, which was covered in pine needles.

We took up the upstairs bathroom niche and it fits perfect. Genny painted it with a couple of coats of paint and started painting the inside window casing parts for the front bedroom window. We put the rest of the painting on hold as there was just too much sawdust while working on the stairs.