First two steps installed… starting from the top, and working down

We have decided to take on our last and greatest task literally days before we leave Dancing Rabbit for Berea, Kentucky. In these final few days before we move, we are building a spiral staircase in our timber frame house. It is a rather foolish thing to do, but important, too.

We have literally 3 or so days left to try to finish the beast. And it is a beast, let me tell you. Drilling and chiseling 11 mortises in a roundwood post, making an equal number of stair risers with tenons, sawing/planing/gouging/oiling the 3″ elm slab steps… not to mention, having the wrap our puny minds around the layout has been quite the ordeal, to say the least. We are finally in the swing of things now that we have the layout firmly established, but the physical side of the work is still very intense.

Here are a few photos of what we are doing up until the literal minute we leave. Sometimes I wonder about these decisions we make…

Laying out to the mystical daisy wheel on the floor

Mortising on a ladder, against gravity… no small task. Very physically demanding. Did I mention the wood is black locust?

April’s beautiful gouge marks in the surface of the slab step will make a grippier surface

Finished step ready for installation: sawn, planed, gouged, chamfered, oiled…

Wish us luck. The sun is out now and it’s time for us to return to work, now that we have light. We’ll need every minute we can get.