Thanks for posting that pic buddy.
Well, I started out ordering my lumber from a local place on sat to be delivered on Monday at noon. The salesman assured me he had the numbers that I wanted in stock and everything was cool for the delivery.
I had been having a hard time tracking down the u-bolts that I needed to clamp the rebar stakes I was using to and through the stair stringers and had bought out the stock of the three different places that I had been.
So there I was, back in time to accept the delivery and I get this phone call. "I'm sorry mr Conrad but we won't have your lumber in stock or be able to make your delivery until Thursday or Friday" talk about teed off......
So I cancelled the order, borrowed the stepdad's truck and 16ft trailer and took the wife on an hour and a half trip to a Sutherlands in Sedailia and got the lumber myself. The wood was cheaper there, we got to choose pretty pieces, and found some more u- bolts and still saved money.
After we got unloaded, the wife wanted to go fishing so that day's production was shot.
Tues morning, we got started a bit late as it rained first thing.
I drew out my first stringer and I cut the first three while the wife stained all of the tread boards. Then, she helped me mark and cut the treads and stein the stringers and it was time to carry the parts for the first run down the hill. I carried the stringers down on my shoulder and we loaded all of the treads into the magnum and drove em down.
By this time, the wife had had about enough and was a tad pissy.
I placed the three stringers on a cradle assembly of rebar that I had built to hold everything to the right height and plumb, lined the tops up and secured em, framed the stringers out by attatching three sets of treads top, middle, and bottom. Next came the fun task of pounding in rebar stake and then drilling in holes for the u-bolts. The whole u- bolt installation seemed about the biggest pain of putting things together but they did clamp onto the rebar just as I had planned.
That took till about 7pm Monday night and we were pooped. First thing tues, we screwed on the rest of the treads to that first section and then went up the hill to start the process again. Yesterday went better as wegot just as much done in three hours less time. We had a dinner date and had to quit early otherwise that second section would have gotten done yesterday.
It is raining today but I did brave the elements long enough to almost finish that section. I have five more sets of treads and the bottom set of stakes to install.
I figured about 3 1/2 days on this deal but didn't consider the weather turning cruddy on us.
I wanted to build this stairway so that the folks and the wifey Gould get up and down the hill better but I think we will all enjoy it.
