More stairs and wall framing

On Sunday I cleaned all of the loose straw and bales of straw out of the house. There was quite a pile of loose straw in the living room. It’ll be used in the interior walls later, but for now I wanted it out of the way. I moved it onto the porch and then tossed it into my hay baler which I brought over from the barn. I figured it would be easier to move and store it if it was baled. There were about 15 bales worth of straw in the pile.

With the straw all moved to the barn, I spent Monday sweeping the floors. I started upstairs with a leaf blower. That made quite a cloud of dust! After I’d blown everything to the downstairs, I set the ladder up and opened the cupola windows. I already had several windows open on the first floor. As soon as I opened the windows in the cupola, dust began flowing upward and out. I was encouraged that the cupola will help with ventilation in the house. This is the first time I’ve had opportunity to test it so far.

Today, I wanted to finish the stairs. There were still three steps to build to take the staircase all of the way to the second floor. I started by putting 2x8s down for the subfloor on the stair landing after cutting rabbets along the edges. These boards will be the ceiling in the master bedroom closet also.

Cutting out the stringers for the last steps was simple enough. Once I had them cut out, I had to figure out how to attach them at the second floor level. One side only required putting a board against an already framed wall to put the stringer in the right position. I had to frame a short wall on the other side.

It was necessary to frame the third wall for the master bathroom. This wall is also one of the walls for the main bathroom. I left out two studs so that I will be able to put in the tub/shower unit when I’m ready for it. It won’t fit through the framed door opening. Once the tub is in place, it will be easy enough to insert the two wall studs in their proper places.

The final task for today was to frame and put into place the wall against the stairs. This wall will support an extra three feet wide section of second floor landing and serves as one of the walls for the main bathroom. It was simple to frame and fairly easy to put into place.

I swept up some dust created by todays activities and took a few photos before calling it a day. It’s still exciting to see the progress each day I work on the house.

Stairs

Anne and I spent some time in the house this morning before I milked the cows. She wanted to see what I got done yesterday. Her appreciation of my work is a wonderful thing. She loves the house and is excited about the progress. The children are also excited, and we’re all looking forward to living in it.

Today’s task was stair-building. I started by laying out the steps on a 14 foot 2x12. The main tool for laying out stairs is a framing square. I put one leg on the edge of the 2x12 at 7.25” and the other leg at 11” and then drew lines along the edge of the square. I repeated this eleven times. Then, it was time to cut out the triangles, creating a stringer for the stairway. I cut with my circular saw up to the point the two lines met and finished the cuts with a hand saw. I used the first stringer to mark the second one and then cut it out the same way.

I attached the top of the stringers to the landing at the top and to the floor at the bottom end. The stairs are to be 36 inches wide from the post at the bottom to the wall that will be on the other side of them. However, there will be a wall below the stairs on the living room side, and this wall is at the midpoint of the post. So, the stairs are actually 41.5 inches wide up to the landing. The 5.5 inches extra on the living room side isn’t really usable except for being a place to put a railing, but it leaves a full 36 inches of usable stair width.

By lunch time, I had the stringers up and secured and put on the risers. Because the rise of the stairs is 7.25 inches, a standard 2x8 was a perfect width for the risers (a 2x8 is 1.5” x 7.25”).

After lunch I worked for a couple of more hours and was able to cut and install the treads. I used 2x12s. I did have to rip about 1/4 of an inch off of each of them so that they would be the right width. One of the treads had to be notched to fit around the post at the bottom of the stairs. I cut the lines with my circular saw, finishing them with a hand saw.

I went ahead and installed seven 2x4s under the edge of the living room side of the stairs to frame the wall that is to be there. These help to support the stairs just as the wall on the other side between the stairs and the bathroom will do.

With the walls I framed yesterday and the stairs today, it’s easier to visualize some of the spaces in the house. One of these is the closet in the master bedroom. It will be quite nice, nicer than we previously imagined. The photo on the right looks into the closet area. There will be a hanging rod on the right side and a shorter one straight back beneath the stairs.

It’s nice to be able to get back to work on the house and see it coming together as it is.