Stairs...progress

On Saturday afternoon, Kev drove 50 miles to Kinsley to pick up the lumber for our stairs.

A "tree man" lives there and happens to have a sawmill he uses for fun.  He sometimes cuts up trees that he takes down and sells the wood.  Remember, this is Kansas.  A sawmill is not something typically found out here.  We literally stumbled on this guy when we put in the pellet stove three years ago.

 This is what Kev brought home.  Yes, I am aware that one "board" is really a stump. A Six foot long stump, but it's a stump.

Don't ask.

This pickup load of lumber only set us back $250.  A steal.

 These boards are 3 inches thick and Kev has to cut them into stair lengths of 40 inches.

 But first, he wanted to trim the edge off.  He thought about just making all of his cuts with the chainsaw, but decided to use the circular saw instead.

 He had Andy help lift them up.  They measured and cut.

Andy then carried them out and laid them outside.  They aren't quiet dry, so Kev and Andy put some spacers between the steps and he thinks they will dry out quite a bit this week in our atypical warm weather.  (Which I am enjoying!)  So, now that we have the steps, and the stringers are cut, I anticipate that we'll see the stairs going up soon. 

But before they can be assembled...we have to sand them, decide if we're staining them, and then they can be assembled. 

Kev had enough wood left over that he's thinking of other ways to incorporate it into the finished project.  As a newel post, or somehow in the banisters or something....

We're still on track for me to win the bet. But, we're making progress!