Endgame Stairwell Trim

Mackenley decorating the basement Christmas tree.

During our mid-week and weekend work trips to KnArrow Haus, we focused on finishing the trim around the stairs and stairwells. Every piece is custom cut, usually with multiple measurements and angles to get everything to line up. Lots of trudging up and down between the stairs and the saw in the garage. 

Added trim along the underside of the stair stringers because
we had to cut the drywall back when mounting the staircase.

Tolerances on the top side the stair stringer were close enough that I was able to caulk the gap.

We used the same birch plywood that's on the ceiling
to trim out the floor joists in the top floor stairwell. 

I used the blue pine to trim out the framing
and floor joists on the bottom stairwell.

We cut our 12 foot long 4"x10" piece of blue pine in half.
One piece will become an entryway bench. The other piece might
become our fireplace mantle.

I installed our T-Mobile Home Internet router upstairs Tuesday evening. It's truly unlimited -- no such thing as overages. (A must when teenagers with social media visit.) For $50/month and without any upfront payments or long-term commitment, they sent me a router that I only had to plug in. Signal strength is just ok, and the speeds aren't awesome, but they're better than the currently-unavailable DSL, the only hardwired option in our little mountain community. Hopefully it'll work out. To-date, I've been rationing our use of a mobile router connected to Verizon that throttles to ridiculously slow speeds after 20GB.

Panorama view to the North on Saturday morning from the master bedroom.

Beginning of the Endgame

A beautiful, bluebird day for working on KnArrow Haus doing what can only be characterized as the endgame. 

In the Wintertime, a mountain to the Sourth shields the cabin from direct sunlight
starting early afternoon, even though we have daylight until early evening.

View from the inside.

Mackenley digging in the snowbank created by the roof shedding.

Started off the workday with a gimme: Installing the microwave. We've been using a cheapo-temp microwave during construction that will now be relegated to the basement. I searched high and low, long and hard to find a black stainless steel that was 18" wide or narrower. They don't exist. This LG model that is _exactly_ 18" wide and has a 1000 watts of power. 

The next order of business was far less glamorous. I applied another coat of epoxy to the drain trough and pipe flange in the bunk bathroom sink -- don't want to take any chances with it leaking (again) after my first failed attempt at repair. (Really annoyed that a sink that expensive wasn't perfect out of the box.)  

Sorry, no pics. 

With Katie's help, I mounted the sliding door track for the bunk bathroom.

Mounting the track for the sliding bathroom door.

I did a lot of measuring, planning, and remeasuring to make sure the wheels on the track would clear the perpendicular vent pipe; and so the door would also be at the right height for the opening. Not too high. Not too low. Just right. 

Because the framing is a little off inside the wall and the track crossed the opening at the top of the doorway, I had to drill an extra hole in the metal track. But I'm good at drilling through metal after my experience with the stair railing.

With both sliding door mounted the next order of business was installing the handles.

Handle on outside of sliding door

Handle on inside of sliding door.

The final accoutrement to the sliding doors is the door guide at the bottom to keep the door from swinging in and out.

Sliding door roller guide

Final task for the day was installing the toilet paper holders.  I bought these on Etsy a few weeks ago.

Basement bathroom

Main floor toilet room

Bunk bath toilet room

Master bathroom

As we were packing up last night to come home, Mackenley came running in, crying with blood on his tongue. He learned the hard lesson that a cold metal railing is NOT a good place to lick off the frost.

Tongues and metal railing don't mix.
(Note the "shiny" patch on the railing seasoned with tongue skin.)

Overachieving Olaf

Olaf's been working overtime during this La Niña year. Here's where we're sitting in terms of snowfall heading in to Winter 20/21. 

Here's what it looks like on the ground.