Stair trim, rail slats, lower stairs...

We've put in some mega days, although the rain has changed plans a couple of times (not a good time to operate chop saw outside).  I've been pretty tired in the evenings so this is from a couple of days ago.

The way we envision the stairs--vertical pickets--requires good surfaces to attach them, so Tom has had to do some serious parallelogram-cutting.  Once the posts are plumb, and he has a long 2 x 4 he can run at the right height down the stairs, he can then clamp it, triple check it, and then scribe the cut-lines along the posts.  It's finicky work but it is paying off.

Of course at the top of the stairs there's more finicky cutting to do.  We have decided to leave the top posts long as newel posts, and chamfer them to soften the tops.

This work on the landing was not anticipated in the original estimate, but it will finish the project well.  Tom is working next to the lower stairs, bolting in the post that will delimit the edge of the landing; to the left is where you access the berry patch (despite the deer, who only snacked on the low shoots, the crop will be great after the pruning and the rain).  I think a planter would fit well here (where before there was just the bishop-pine stump that'd been covered with ivy), as that would use up some of the dirt we had to excavate...

I set up the little chop saw to cut the compound miters for the bench backs / slats, though in this shot I haven't given the ends a haircut, there at the end of the path at the left.

This is what we ended up with to resolve the spacing problem (making sure all the openings are less than 4")--this means that there are four slats and not three, which meant that I had to make another run to Pt Reyes yesterday so I had enough material when the rain let up today.

There is a side benefit to the denser spacing, however: the benches are more comfortable on the back!  Here's the corner looking pretty finished, although Muggs still has to cobble together a little trellis for the rose, which was thinned and pulled aside both for the deck and the septic inspection.