The Long and Winding Road

It's been a long 24 hours.  Anticipating that I was heading down to camp today, I sat down last night to draw up the plans for the two sets of stairs.  I didn't want to do the traditional stringer-style, so I did a tiered 'birthday cake' style instead, for something different and unique.  After about two hours of drawing it out (taking into consideration overlapping boards and overhangs, etc), I decided to run out to Lowes to get the lumber at 9pm last night and brought it all back to the garage.  Overhanging 6 feet from the back of my truck, I knew that I had to pre-cut the pieces to get them down to camp or I would get a ticket or they'd fall out on the way.  So I got up at 6am and started measuring, marking and saw-cutting the boards (my neighbors were probably mad, but I have to listen to their kids screaming and bouncing the basketball all day, so 'F' them).  I packed everything up and headed for camp, getting there around noon and got done around 5.  It was a gorgeous day today... and the ride up the mountain winding roads was spectacular.  The project went off without a hitch due to my pre-planning and I had very little waste and was left with 5 screws.  I got home around 7:30, unloaded the tools and vacuumed the truck out.

It was a really great project.  I enjoyed working on it by myself and I'm proud of the finished product, but I'm glad it's done for now.  We'll be doing some lattice under the trailer and some landscaping and a fire pit.  I have my two bar nights... and a little grass cutting... but other than that, I'm skating by until I head out west next Tuesday.

The stairs are just a series of outlined boxes with supports in the middle and deck boards on top with a slight overhang, stacked one on top of the other.