The DECK - Part 4: Stairs, wonderful stairs

It's the simple things I tell ya...

You know when you get used to not having something like - I don't know...stairs, and then all of a sudden - boom - you've got stairs it can be quite a shock.

Well consider me shocked to my core, because we now have stairs from our deck to our back patio.  I'll rewind a bit for you.  We moved in August of 2011 and knew the deck needed replacing but we could at least walk on the deck.  Not so much for the stairs, they were a dicey maneuver from day one.  And since we reset our patio in March, we haven't even had proper stairs, just a railroad tie (which was actually way more sturdy than the stairs we ripped out).  Ah, memories...

Railroad tie with some of the stair material nailed on top.

Classy.

But safer than the stairs that came with the house. 

Who knew stairs could be so complicated to build?  John.  I am so very naive about this stuff.  I figure just rip the old ones out and build new ones.  What?  2 hours tops in my book.  But John knew better.  Let's just say that the stairs took awhile, OK?  If I can ever get him to write a blog post, he can tell you himself, but since I rely on his word I'll just say that they were a challenge and we are extremely happy with the end result.

Here ya go...

First we had to rip the old stairs off the side of the house (the cat litter
bucket is sitting on them in the picture above).

And since the stairs were out of the way, we could
 finish the patio pavers all the way up to the house.
 

Then...

John used the old ledger board as a template for the new masonry screws and attached a new one.

This took FOR.EV.ER.  The masonry screws and expanders kept
malfunctioning and the board wasn't sitting tight.

John kept at it and finally the screws started to grab into the house.

John wins!!
  All kidding aside, this took a couple of hours.... 

Then he attached the stringers 

Then I stained the ledger board and stringers to match the skirting on the deck.

And right when we were ready to attach the stair treads, we realized that
there was no support for the corner since the patio doesn't go that
far underneath.

blerg.

John spent the next hour or so building support for the corner.
Then I stained that too. 

And finally...

Oh. My. God.

Who knew stairs could be such a luxury?

We kept going outside last evening to just look at them.   And walk up and down them.  And sit on them.  Did I mention they are extra wide?  They are,  14 1/2".  Nice and cosy to sit and have a beer in the evening.  I hope I can get used to them, I still hesitate when I get to them thinking that they are going to collapse if I step on them wrong.  

Here we are last fall...

 

...and here we are today.

Next (and FINAL) stage - the trellis.

See ya then.