Chicago Duplex Down Rehab

After letting the glue dry overnight, I applied 1 coat of primer to the unfinished pine.  After letting that dry for a day, i applied 2 coats of Sherwin Williams Pro Classic paint. wet primer coat I let the paint dry 24 hours for each coat.  The paint was ok to touch after 4 hours, and I was able to move the piece indoors for the remain dry duration. using two outdoor chairs to raise piece The piece was about 130 inches long, so 4 stair rail hardware mounts were need to support at every 3 1/2 feet.  There's no hard and fast rule for how many mounts are needed, but definitely not just one at top and bottom in this case. Make sure you orient the hardware in the same direction at the return.  Also, double check the distance from the wall mount to the rail is greater than the return.  If you, you'll be fighting the return piece against the wall while trying to mount, which would be terrible. Also, the screws are left out of the wood just enou...

I found this online article on how to install a handrail with 45 degree (rather than common 90 degree) returns.  It said to cut some scrap at 45 deg, and then create another piece that is the same length as the hand rail to wall distance.  In this case, the hand rail bracket is 2 1/2" from the wall, the hand rail itself is 1 1/2" thick, so the calculated distance is ( 2 1/2" -  ( 1 1/2" / 2 ) ) = 1 3/4" . Setting the 45 degree piece against the miter saw fence as if it was against the wall, you can mark where the rail would need to be cut to have correct length at angle. Now the marked scrap piece can be used to measure off the hand rail cut.   Make sure you're going the right way, depending if its the top or bottom of the stairs! The miter saw should have a pre-set notch for 22.5 deg.  Once the miter has been set for this angle, cut the hand rail at the mark.  Then switch the miter to the 22.5 deg in the other direction to cut the hand rail aga...

We've had an unfinished bookcase in our master bedroom since... I'm not even going to say how long I've put off this project!  It needed a picture frame casing and trim paint to match the rest of the bedroom. After a trip to  OWL Lumber  for some casing, I went to  +Pumping Station One  to cut and assemble the frame.  I used square head trim screws to help hold it together on the ends with glue.  Its a real pain to clamp the ends since you have to deal with 4 corners all at once and the glue coming out the bottom.  Other recommendations welcome. Once I brought the frame home, leveled the bookcase in the opening, and I nailed the frame in to the bookcase side panels. Two coats of Sherwin Williams ProClassic  and 3 day dry time later..

We have a new pressured treated pine fence on the property line with the new house next door.  That part was great, all at the builders cost, but they didn't build a new fence gate for us.  After looking online at typical fence gate construction, I decided to go with the 'picture frame w/ diagonal support' design.  Instead of pine, I chose cedar for the wood.  I think its about twice the cost, but the color is so much nicer than pressure treated pine.   I recently became a paid member of the Pumping Station: One 'makerspace' (or 'hackerspace'), so I have 24/7 access to the facility that includes a nice woodshop.  I was able to build the frame there, and then screw in the fence pickets at home in the garage.  Once the wood has completely dried out (still somewhat wet when buying at Home Depot), I'll give it a 2 coats of stain, and some strategically placed caulk to give it a chance of lasting more than a couple years. I didn't have 90 degree clam...

My wife has been using our stairwell cabinet drop down desk as her personal office, which has been great, but she pointed out that there was no adequate lighting.  I had some left over 'LED strip lighting' from another project outside the house.  All I needed to do this was: 30" LED strip lighting (bought on AMAZON from LEDWholesalers), 12V/2A power supply, and an 'inline low voltage switch'.  The LED strip has an adhesive backing so it was easy to attach to the top inside of the desk.  We still have some work to do on cleaning up the power cords (computers, phones, and now the LED lighting).

DS Construction finished the gang-way sidewalk yesterday.  Its quite a change of the old one which was tilted toward the neighbors property, and had large gaps between the sidewalk and building.  Finished sidewalk as of this morning, curing! First drop of concrete from Prairie Material . Concrete form, right on property line.  Neighbor fence will be adjacent to concrete on neighbor property. Retaining wall form for 3 steps down, under the bay window.

I knew the right time to replace the gangway sidewalk would be during the construction of a new house next door.  After some sleuthing, I found out that DS Construction is contracted demolition and concrete contractor.  I talked with their boss a few months ago, and he agreed to replace our sidewalk as part of the work he was already doing here.  When the crew finally showed up, they seemed unaware and ambivalent about the idea.  They said "if Stan said yes, then its yes".  No contract.  I called the general contractor, and they said its common for subs to just have verbal agreements because they work with them so often.  Anyway, it was easy to convince them that now was absolutely the best time to pull out the old, collapsed sidewalk.  I used a steel iron to knock out around the drain at the bottom of the stairs myself, because they took out the entire sidewalk (all 125 feet) in a couple hours using the digger.  Its turning out to be a win-w...