I have been working on repairing the front porch for a while. It has been one of those projects that I didn’t have a problem starting, but I’ve been very slow finishing. One of the repairs I have been working on has been the front stairs. If the existing stairs weren’t original to the house, they were certainly past their useful life. I have the stairs installed, and am now working on the railing.

I didn’t really like the look of the simple balusters that one can get at the hardware store, so decided to use sawn balusters. However, they are very pricey to order online, and only come in limited styles. I purchased a collection of digital patterns on Etsy, and decided to try to make them myself.

The balusters are made from Poplar that I milled to 5/8″ thick. I think I need to make a total of 14 balusters for the project, and each currently takes about 2-hours to cut out. I’m currently cutting out the entire shape on the CNC. However I may switch to using a pattern bit and router for the outside if the CNC takes too long. The nice thing about the CNC is that I can work on other projects in the shop while it is running.

Lesson’s learned so far:
1. The balusters need to be a little over 31″ long to fit between the top and bottom rail. The boards I have are a little over 7′ long, so I can only get two balusters per board. I need boards a touch over 8′ long to get 3 balusters/board. I’ll have to look through the stack at the lumber yard to get longer pieces when I go back.
2. It takes lots of trial and error to get the cut right. I used MDF as a cheap practice material, however the MDF is tough on the CNC bits.
3. This is a pretty hefty project for this hobby machine, so shallow cuts and long cut times are what seem to work.

My CNC is only 14″ x 14″, so I have to tile the cut and do the project in two steps:

Today we started the long legs of our trip, the first of two 7-ish hour days in the car from the Poconos to Webster Groves. We took a half-way break at Doolittle Station in DuBois, PA. We explored the dinosaurs and train cars, picking up a small snack at the cafe before continuing on. Pictures from today:

Today was our Poconos visit. After a mediocre breakfast at our hotel and some swimming time at the hotel pool, we headed to Columcille Megalith Park to get out a bit. It wasn’t a long hike, but Izzy ran around, eventually getting lost and needing me to go find her. Luckily it wasn’t a big park. We had lunch at a small park and playground in the city and headed out a little bit to do mini-golf and drive go-karts. Izzy spotted a crystal store on our drive and insisted on stopping. Tomorrow is our fist long of two days of longer drives to get to St. Louis on Wednesday.

We stopped for ice cream on the drive back to the hotel, again returned to the pool and hot tub for a swim. This evening will be take-out pizza and TV.

Susanna, Izzy and I started our big summer vacation today. Instead of Sweden this year, we are heading to St. Louis. We left early and stopped by New Britain to take Ben and his girlfriend, Nu, out to breakfast before heading to the Pocono’s for two nights. We decided to make this a relaxing trip and forgo camping for hotels and dining out.

Izzy has her last rehearsal of Seussical Jr. at the Granite Theater in Westerly. Opening night is tomorrow, and all week is evening dress rehearsals. Susanna and I have been taking turns dropping her off. In reality, it is only 30 minute from home, and the rehearsal is 3 hours, so I could make it home for 2-hours, but that adds an hour in the car, so we have both mostly been staying in Westerly while Izzy rehearses.

I had been taking Hoagie to the Westerly dog park for the rehearsals that started earlier in the evening. However, the park empties out at 6pm, so I would have two hours with the dog to wander around until it is time to pick up Izzy. Plus, Hoagie has learned how to jump in the kiddie pools at the dog park and pee in them. So, tonight I left Hoagie at home and took a walk around Wilcox park to take some pictures before landing in the library to kill a few hours.

Will and I had originally planned to drop off my Blue Jay sailboat, Cookie Monster, at Pettipaug yesterday morning and race in the opening race of the season. Unfortunately we had to turn back before we got far and didn’t get to sail yesterday. This morning we made the trip to Essex with the boat and dropped it off. Izzy and Hoagie joined us for the trip, which adds a little bit of stress, but is worth it.

Will and I spent some time at the club trying to figure out how to get the upgraded/extra-large jib to fit on the boat without much luck. When Will gets back to work at the loft at Farrar Sails on Tuesday, he will talk to Kevin to see what we need to adjust on the mast to get the jib to fit. The demonstration sails Will borrowed should significantly increase the sail area on the boats, and should be good in the light wind on the Connecticut River.

This afternoon, Susanna’s preschool class marched in the Ledyard Memorial Day Parade. She invited Izzy and I to join the group and help hold the sign and pass out candy. Last year my nephew, Matthew, joined us and we brought Hoagie. This year we didn’t have any house guests to join us and I didn’t want Hoagie to walk on the hot pavement today. Izzy and Susanna got dressed up for the parade. Izzy’s best friend, Evelyn, was there as well, which I think was the real incentive for Izzy to go. It is always fun to walk in the parade and hand out candy (and for Izzy to meet all the dogs along the way).

I’ve been really taking my time on the the front porch repair. Last year we replaced the ceiling, which wound up being a larger project than I expected. The project sat dormant for most of the winter. Earlier this spring, Susanna ripped up the rotten stairs and porch decking in front of the door. I had planned to make the decking from some white oak, but the rough stock I got was too thin, and it was going to be a lot of work. So I stalled and found other projects to work on.

A week ago I went by Koszela Lumber to see if they had anything already milled to match the existing flooring. The original floor is a solid 1-inch thick tongue-and-groove Fir. They had a very close match. The boards were the correct thickness, but not quite as wide (maybe 1/4″ shy of the original boards). The deck is painted, so I decided to go for it and hoped it would look good.

Last week I cut the boards to length and rounded the ends. Today I installed the floor repair, with the final board having to be cut thin to meet up with the existing deck. The next step is to finish the steps.

I had to head to Washington, D.C. this week for work. I was able to get a hotel downtown, only a few blocks from the White House. My flight home on Tuesday was late morning, so I had a chance to take a short walk for breakfast around sunrise and get a few pictures. I’ve stopped doing the long trips with my current job and no mostly go to Washington D.C. or State College, PA. I miss some of the exciting trips, but I am enjoying more time at home.

Even though my phone camera takes decent pictures, I think that next time I’ll have to bring my camera and better walking shoes so I can get out a little more and take some nice pictures.

Last weekend was pretty wet. Okay, it was very wet through Saturday. However, Will had an opportunity to crew on a Buccaneer 18 sailboat at the 2023 Buccaneer North American Championship in at the Niantic Bay Yacht Club. He had a practice race on Thursday and then sailed all day in the cold rain on Friday. It was a tough day, but they didn’t capsize and they finished all the races. He was feeling sick on Saturday so they skipped races then, which sounded like a good plan, several boats capsized during the race on Saturday.

The rain and cold weather ended on Saturday night, and Sunday was a beautiful day. On Sunday they completed the remaining races in the morning. Izzy and I took our Blue Jay, “Cookie Monster” down to Niantic to sail in the “Frostbite Series” Blue Jay race that day. We were next in line for the lift when the Buccaneers came started coming in and using the lift. It was going to take over an hour to get the Buccaneers out of the water, so we decided to de-rig Cookie Monster and just wait for Will get get in. Will reported that the sailing was much better on Sunday, and they came in 3rd overall in the B-series race.

Hopefully the weather on Sunday will allow Izzy and I to race in the next of the Blue Jay series, though I’ll probably take the boat home after the race and end the season.

Cookie Monster came with a board designed to hold up the boom when the boat is being stored with the mast on. The board needed refinishing, so this week I sanded the board clean, used the laser to engrave the hull number, a Blue Jay logo (at least one I found on the internet), and a compass rose on the board. I am currently in the process of putting the last coats of varnish on the board. It will be done just in time to be stored for the winter. Next project is to clean up the rest of the woodwork on the boat, and hopefully get a new set of sails this winter.