Steps

Sunday Dave and I built steps. I forgot to post about it. I don't want to change the date on the entry because you might not go down as far.
I'll have pictures posted soon and include a link.

We bought the wood a few weeks ago at Lowes. We didn't stain or seal the main wood. We talked to the people at the store and we have 5 years worth out of them w/o stain based on the finish on these premade things. we only need 1 year. we have 2 2x4s and we put stuff on them so the weather won't ruin them.

so we were doing such a good job. pb decides he'd like to call his dad and tell him. just as his dad answers, i broke a drill bit.
then a few minutes later i broke the other drill bit. these drill bits are the cheapest ones that walmart sales because we bought the drill in college and we didn't have money then.

I got the bit out of one of the holes but couldn't out of the other. it doesn't stick out though. but perhaps if a bare foot went on it just wrong, your foot could feel part of the bit.

we tested it out and if pb stands in the middle and i also stand in the middle of a step, it doesn't break so i think we're in good shape.

so i did all this fine, but then after we were done, i went to pick up the chair and broke a nail. it's a folding chair (for inside) and it had sunk into the ground a few inches. pb got tuckered out so i brought him a chair while I put the steps (horizontal slats) on the rest of it.

i'm mad the 2nd board is off center by a quarter of an inch. i must have bumped it before putting it on. i then put the 3rd step off by an 1/8 to try to make it blend.

it took us roughly 2.5 hours to make the steps.

we had some trouble getting in all the screws because the drill would end up stripping the head. we couldn't find a good bit. tried about 3. the screws were labeled with which bit # to use but our bits are too cheap to be labeled.