Quiet Week

Well, it's Sunday night again. I feel like I've been hardly working on the backyard. It started raining Wednesday night, persisted (sort of) on Thursday and a bit on Friday. I could have done lots of work in the dry times, or when it was just misting, but I just didn't feel like it. The lights dangled for a few days.

On Saturday, I hung the rest of the lights on the wire supports: 12 on the first (west-most) line, 11 on the middle, and 11 on the east-most line. I'm thinking I'll make that 11-12-11 by moving a light at the southern-most (spindly pine) tree.

I wonder where I got the idea that I could string the lights without wire supports? Could it be the sales material? Well, anyway, the $35 kit worked out just great--vinyl-coated, stainless steel cable with beautiful stainless steel fittings and turnbuckles. The connector at the southwest corner has to change, though--the wire is rubbing against the house, because I foolishly mounted it out of sight around the corner.

Sunday, I cut the remaining handrail pieces for the lower deck, including the sloping stair handrail. Making and fitting a template handrail out of salvaged lumber was a master stroke. The miters were wrong when I first cut them, and some had to be re-done twice. But when they were right, I had the precise angles and lengths so cutting the Fiberon handrails was easy. Also, I cut the end returns a couple of weeks ago--that was very tricky, because they come to a knife edge on two sides. So I super glued the returns on the cut boards and we're good to go on the handrails.

What that means is that this week I'll paint the undersides and ends (two coats) and I'll glue them down when I'm ready. One issue with the upper handrails is that the miters must stay in the same plane. I bought some metal corner angles to install on the underside and we'll see how that works.

This project is nearing completion.

• Give the railings a second coat of black stain (may need more black stain)
• Install the angled cable rail on the lower stairs; it will be tricky
• Glue the handrail on the angled stair railing
• Glue the handrail on the other 5 sections
• Buy parts and install electrical for the lights
• Misc fixup--add blocking under unsupported deck end; add deck screws where needed; cut sharp corner of upper tread
• Install the remaining cable rail (7 panels x 8 rows)--112 pilot holes, 112 holes, 112 lag screws
• Move the wood piles to the front (side) yard
• Solve the basement stairs (a project in itself--to the drawing board!)

Twilight; that's why you can still see everything