January 18th - Day 18/347 days to go!

Today was second floor stairs day.....punching out the pieces....sanding.....more sanding....and yup, more sanding. I've come to the conclusion that Greenleaf must have shares or be a subsidiary of a sandpaper company. The up side is that I'm getting much better at it.....I can zone right out and just keep on sanding. I glued the risers to the framing, glued the railing to this section since they are all going to be white....and then it was sit and watch the glue dry. Not really, I did it just before bed so the glue had overnight to set.

There was a huge OMG moment today.....and I almost freaked out! As I was cutting out the pieces for the bannister railing and stair posts.....and I only did a few.....they were starting to disintegrate in my hand.....splinter after splinter of wood just kept fraying off.....YIKES! That was even before I could think about sanding them.....and they do need sanding. So I'm doing an experiment.....I sealed the edges with glue....and hopefully that will stop the destruction. I stuffed as much glue into the little pores of the wood as I could in the hopes that this would hold it together.

I may have to rethink this part of the stair construction. I do have some 1/8th inch cherry that I could use for the bannister and just not put in the stair dewel posts. Hum, might have to make another executive decision here.