Tread carefully

Why you would need to wear hi-vis to paint the stair treads is beyond me? But hey, who am I to get in the way of a man and his need for safety-ware?

Painting stair treads on a Queenslander house

The weekend was spent pretty much prepping our new external stairs for painting. Jason whipped out the trusty Sicaflex and filled all the gaps in the stairs to weatherproof it. You know, nail holes and all the timber joins. Apparently, wood rot begins at the joins therefore a good weatherproof gap filler is an important preventative measure.

Jason got up bright and early and slipped on his new hi-vis shirt which he bought himself for Father's Day. The glint of fluoro early on a weekend morning can be too much to bear for people who aren't used to it...I told Jason in no uncertain terms...

Eating breakfast with Mr Hi-vis. There was no need to put an overhead light on...the glow from his shirt was enough to illuminate the room.

Pencilled in stair treads

We've chosen not to paint the entire stair treads, opting for a painted finish for the edges only and leaving the rest of the tread au naturel with an oiled finish. This is similar to what was done on our back staircase leading from our deck.

Jason (ably assisted by Son # 1 and a steel ruler) measured each tread carefully and then marked it with his carpenter's pencil. Jason's become such an expert with a paint brush that he cuts in freehand - no painter's tape for him after three years painting the Sow's Ear. Well, I was impressed...

Keep you posted on the progress!

Awesome

Awesome equals two Panton S chairs found in an op shop.

These are awesome! They are replica chairs but they're in such great condition...we have so many chairs. They will make great statement in a study 

Not-so-awesome equals Jason getting over-excited and buying his own father's day present...

Jason was in Morayfield today and popped into Masters to buy tradie clothes. Hi-vis yellow shirt and blue pants...I  told him the blog post re Masters the other day was meant to be tongue-in-cheek...

That is all.

Wannabe tradie

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Our belt sander has gone walk-about. Where could it be? Doesn’t it know we need Jason fully-equipped to sand down the decks in time for spring? I suspect Jason’s hidden it somewhere…

Never fear, I’m going to buy Jason another one, as encouragement to continue his DIY thing. For Father’s Day. Ha! The poor thing will never escape DIY while living here. Never!

And because I’m into online browsing for gifts, I was happy to hear that Masters Home Improvement recently launched their online store. Hooray for more competition in the world of hardware for all of us tireless home improvers!

Well, Masters have declared it a sock, jock and tie free day this Father’s Day. Normally fashionisto Jason would be thrilled to get a pair of designer jocks; however the belt-sander would be far more practical…

Jocks and a power tool would be a great combination. Yeah!

Then I had a light bulb moment. Maybe I should get Jason tradie clothes instead? If you’ve been following our renovations, you would know Jason’s home handyman uniform consists mainly of rags… He looks like a complete and utter hobo.

Jason in his old work clothes

So, I started wandering through the Masters site and searched for shirts, pants and shoes. Boom! I can kit Jason out from top to toe all online…

          

I give you wannabe tradie Jason.

Men’s long sleeve polo shirt $12. In fashionable orange high-vis!

image from here

Hardwick men’s cargo work pant $25

image from here

Blundstone Safety Boots Havana $99.97

image from here

We’re spoilt for choice. What do you think? Tradie clothes? Belt sander? Jocks?

Or should I just go all out and indulge him this Father’s Day and get the lot...? What are you going to get the Dad in your life?

p.s

And if you think the Dad in your life needs a shed load of stuff to keep him occupied, then enter Masters’ Father's Day Competition by posting a picture of him on their Facebook competition tab for Father's Day and in 25 words or less tell them why you love him.  

External Queenslander stairs

We have brand new stairs! Hooray!

The lads worked all day to get the stairs finished by late this afternoon. To say we are overjoyed would be a gross understatement. It's a beauty!

I give you a pictorial of today's activity:

all the balustrades are on

bud pattern feature panel which is consistent with the rest of the Sow's Ear. The diagonals are in place for a decorative valance that Jason wanted. He wanted to see how it was done so he could replicate it on our back deck.

Stairs at twilight. Sorry for the terrible shot...You can just make out the curve of the valance in this image

solid substantial stairs to access our laundry

The next stage of this project is for a roof to be constructed over the entire stairs. That won't be a for a little while yet...but in the meantime we have a great set of stairs which we can paint!

It never ends this painting a Queenslander caper.

Side stairs progress

You gotta love tradies who will work on a public holiday. Mr D and Scotty arrived at 6am and commenced constructing the new side stairs.

The morning was like this:

Mr D the builder clamping the timber in place..

This was first thing in the morning. The boys put the tall timber posts into the metal stirrups.

Throughout the day we could see steady progress. Jason pitched in as the first year builder's apprentice. He got all the monkey boy jobs, like priming the timber ends, holding posts and beams straight and passing tools to the lads.

Jason must've been a useful part of the team, because later in the morning the lads whisked him away to have smoko with them. He's in, our wannabe tradie Jason.

The first of the timber stair stringers is being fitted

Mr D uses an awesome pink drill, which will now be referred to as the lifestyle drill (I've made a mental not for Jason this Father's Day)

Jason took the opportunity to pull down the side fence which had fully rotted in the supporting posts. It was starting to get to that dangerous stage, so Jason dumped most of the fence into the rubbish skip Mr D had organised for the stairs.

We'll widen the path for easier access to our backyard

We'll also be removing the garden bed closest to the house as it narrows our path. It will allow us to have a wider more direct route to our side stairs.

Later down the track, we'll probably reinstate a new side fence, but that can wait until we have more time and money!

By late afternoon, the boys got through quite a bit of work with the stairs very close to completion. They'll be coming back over the weekend to finish the balustrades and nail the final few decking boards onto the back landing.

almost complete stairs

The second stage of the process is to add a roof, but we have to wait until Mr D and Scotty are between building projects. They're busy people.