I managed to sneak down to the cottage over Thanksgiving weekend to do a bit more work.
First, I installed the trim that I'd previously finished painting - the skirt boards and trim for the sides of the posts. Lots more trim to go obviously (I got two coats of primer on the next batch of trim, but still need to do two finish coats before I can put it up).
Due to the troublesome nature of red paint, I'll need to go over everything with at least one or two top coats to even out the colour, but that will have to wait until next spring. (I am hoping to get the rest of the trim installed this fall though.)
These pictures were taken after I'd caulked all the nail holes and seams (except the bottom seams - those stay open) and had spot primed and painted:
Next on the to-do list was installing the extra rafter-ties that Gary (with his preternaturally sharp eyesight) noticed were needed to stabilize 3:1 cantilever of the fly-rafter blocks.
For the front block I nailed the tie (the silver one on the right,
not the one painted black) to the block and to the side of the rafter girt, then bent the tie 90° around the end of the rafter girt (I’m sure this compromised its strength, but it’s got to be better than having nothing there).
I made the ties for the two middle blocks all pretty-like by painting them black first (since they’ll be more visible):
Finally here’s a picture of my temporary stairs - as you can see, a local rock gave me some issues, resulting in a hurriedly cobbled together “floating stringer.” I’m going to have to work out a better (i.e., more solid) way of navigating a stringer around the rock while still supporting the edge of the upper steps.