Blackbearry Ridge: The End of February?

This sure was a mild February for Blackbearry Ridge and much appreciated with the ongoing work. The girls drove over from UT for the weekend and we had a fun visit. They had not been over for about three (3) weeks due to studying and the fact we were sanding the walls which creates a lot of dust.

We only install one (1) piece of drywall in the stairwell and focused instead on more prep work for trim and finishing the skirts. Brent installed the skirts directly to the framed wall so we could save 1" of width on the stairs. This has caused more than once thinking ahead and trying to vision how all the trim including the columns will tie together. It has also caused more the once the removal of work and re-installation but so goes the process of renovation work. The remaining skirt board on both sides were finished and had to be delayed until the new landing had been installed at the top of stairs.

The original half wall along the stairwell was removed. This required some new framing and the base area of the half-wall was brought up to match the existing sub floor. Now we will be able to run the hardwood floors up to the edge. The prep work never seems to look like much but it is necessary and time consuming to allow for a good finish.

Another item which seems trivial but for us is not is that we brought up four (4) more sheets of drywall. Bringing supplies up 38 steps is never easy or fun.

We are now set up to install all the remaining dry wall in the stairwell next weekend. As a side note-we have not seen any bears on The Ridge since September of 2011. Not sure why we have not seen any, but there are signs of their presence.