Renovation Project - our first power tool accident!!!!

Renovation Project - our first power tool accident!!!!

John has started to look at the stairs again today, they have had some time to breathe since removing some of the vinyl and whilst they do not look fantastic, they are not in particularly bad shape apart from the bottom tread. This has rot and woodworm in it and we are left we no alternative but to remove it.

We also have to remove the step that is at the bottom of the stairs and covered in tiles if we want to have a nice wooden floor in the living room and to ensure that the new stair wall can go into place correctly.

John breaks it up with his kango (this is like a pneumatic chisel) this is going along well and the concrete step breaks up.

John then begins to drill through the new stair wall frame into the floor, whilst pushing the wall on to the stairs with one foot when disaster strikes, it happens so quickly, the drill slips, spins around and before you can blink it has slid on to Johns knee, I am watching as the drill goes into his jeans and continues drilling within seconds the drill has ripped Johns jeans clean open and he manages to let go as the material has wound round the drill and is touching his crown jewels! For a second neither of us can move!

He is OK, it hasn’t cut him, and I go into shock as I cannot believe I didn’t think to just hit the electricity switch, but then I shout why didn’t you just take your hand off the drill switch?????? John explains he couldn’t as his hand was twisted and stuck and if he had let go, then it would definitely have gone in him!

I am distraught that I didn’t help and act quickly enough; John is great and explains that in a situation so fast, I couldn’t have done it.

John’s jeans are ripped up to his waist; I still can’t believe how close he was to drilling into his leg or how close it stopped to his privates!!!!

We stop and have a cup of tea (we are British after all!) this is a word of warning to anybody doing this, an accident is never far away, John has been doing this for over 30 years and can still slip, power tools are dangerous things!

Well the excitement is over and its back to work, the bottom tread has to be removed along with part of the frame. We still have some of the new joists left over so John cuts out the bottom bit of the frame and replaces it with a piece of joist (which has been treated as a precaution) to insert this piece means me holding the stairs up off the ground and John slotting the new piece in place, I feel like superwoman!

The piece is in place and secured, this will not be seen as we have bought a piece of wood to slip on to the outer edge of the stairs so both sides match (this sounds confusing but the photo’s will show what I mean) the wood is like a big skirting board going down along the new wall. The technical term is a rake

The bottom tread is replaced and all of the stairs are treated, the new frame wall goes back in place and they do look good.

That evening we are going to Theresa and Craig’s, John is going to watch the football and I am going to enjoy a nice glass of wine, the evening is lovely, and Theresa and I sit outside (yes it is still lovely weather, this year is so much nicer and warmer than last year).

The day is finished off perfectly by sitting outside at midnight watching shooting stars, I make my wish, but can now say it did not come true as my lottery ticket was thrown away a couple of days later, oh well the stars were like a lottery win on their own.