Finishing Up the Deck
...and some other stuff.
The last things left to close out the deck were installing a handrail and installing a 36" landing at the bottom of the stairs.
If you read the building code, there is actually no requirement that there be a paved landing at the base of an exterior staircase: the code requires a clear area that is level and serves as a landing, but not that it be paved.
However.
The inspector is the final word. The inspector makes the final interpretation of the code, which is to say that if his interpretation of "there shall be a landing at the base of stairs" is that that landing must be paved, that landing must be paved.
So this morning I put in a brick-paved area while Noel installed a handrail (fair enough, I wasn't sure the metal rails counted and they did not). We'll paint the handrail in December, which is the most sensible time to be painting, right? Again, after this permit expires, finished or not.
It's not as if we didn't have plans to put any paving there, but we are avoiding doing anything not required by code until we close this permit.
Anyway, I put some cuttings of Dymondia margaretae in some of the cracks to fill it in.
In the meantime, the contractor finished up the stairs, though they will still add a couple of walls under the stringers next week for us to install siding on -- that got lost in the communication this week.
And they installed some metal flashing and Bituthene waterproofing. Tomorrow morning very bright and early the tile sub is coming to install cement board and start tiling. Early because the contractor is helping me out by coming before I have to get to work.
In other news, Noel has been working slowly away at the wiring, including all of this:
Which is our somewhat-intense switch and outlet bank in the upstairs bathroom.
You know how sometimes you plan something out without the reality of it hitting you in the face? That is what three switches, an outlet, and two slots allocated to a thermostat works out to be.
posted by ayse on 10/26/14