My Country Life

Our back deck has three sets of stairways, one on each side, that give us easy access to the whole back yard.  About a week ago, I was walking down one of them and the handrail had literally popped out.  The wood was rotting and the nails that were used 19 years ago no longer hold and whooosh!  I nearly fell flat on my face.   So just 4 months into homeownership, let the major repairs begin!

There was no way I was going to pay someone to do this.  I am the MAN of this house and I’m going to do it or destroy the deck trying.  Besides, we were already aware that the deck railings are no longer up to code, so it’s a good time to see if I can repair this section.   If it goes well, I’ll replace the rest of the deck railings in the spring.

First was removing the old section.  Most of it was easy to tear apart because there was a lot of wood rot.  But the bottom of the posts were all in good shape, so it took some work to get them removed.  Since the stairway actually covered one of the post bolts that secured it, I decided to make a notch in the stairway to get access to it.   Done!  Next is to buy all the materials.

That was harder than I thought.  I measured every piece I wanted to replace and found that nothing matched up with the wood in stock at Home Depot.  My best guess is that over 19 years, wood shrinks or something, so it’s not going to match up.   Time to talk to the guy in the lumber dept.   He was actually super helpful and after 3 hours of questions, looking around and thinking, I had everything I needed to get the job done.

The posts were surprisingly easy to reinstall.  I needed to drill holes in the top stairway post to match the existing bolt holes in the deck so I could anchor it.  With a little common sense, I got it done and they were perfect.  Wow, that seems rare, but I’m glad it worked out.

Next, I assembled the mid-section rails that hold the spindles.  It turned out GREAT!  Far better than I expected and I got a chance to pull out my light-duty air compressor and use my finish nail gun to tack the railing in place and secure the spindles.  Then, finish securing the whole thing with deck screws.  All done and it looks excellent.

Next will be the top railing,  which I haven’t done yet.  Last would be to stain and re-coat and enjoy.  I’ll give an update when it’s done.

I’ve done a handful of very incredible backpack trips and most of them were done with an alcohol burner stove that was made for me.   Google “Pepsi stove” and you’ll find all you need to know about this kind of stove – it’s been a great asset and I still have it after 8-ish years and it works like a charm. 

This week I was inspired to finally make my first alcohol burner stove.  There’s no shortage of resources out there and quite a few designs.  I could try to recreate the Pepsi stove that was given to me, but I chose a much simpler design that seems to work just as well.  This particular design is called the “Super Cat”.  The directions I used were from Jim Wood, a guy with a lot of backpacking experience and a decent online presence.  Easy to make and it is very effective.  I highly recommend having something like this around the home for emergency use.  It is certainly going to be well used on any backpacking trips that I do.

Super Cat: What a great alcohol burner stove!

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