Greene and Greener

We not only finished up the railing–installing the bell we rescued from this cabin, sandblasted, and repainted–but also finished the side stairs off the porch today. We took a page from our last house, and riffed off a Greene and Greene style set of steps we loved in a bungalow book, and made using square risers at the old house. I cannot find a photo of the originals, but they are somewhere in Pasadena! The stairs are a perfectly simple design, no stringers, and you have to use beefy lumber. Here we used logs, but of course! Our stairs were absolutely free except for a few screws, since we used short log scraps and hemlock scraps from previous projects. We love a cost-effective, custom project! A lot of site work, gravel hauling, etc. has occurred prior to today, making this all possible. As a bonus, we originally planned and mocked up 3 steps but ultimately only needed 2, so the extra top step was fashioned into an awesome plant bench on the porch, housing my collection of mid-century pots.

Both railings stained (one coat anyways)

The old bell, restored.

And from the top.

New side stairs!

Planter collection – scattered all over the house, they came together beautifully.

I was a bit too excited about this leftover plant bench. But hey. it was a long winter.