Astute readers might rightly note that I’ve long since completed installation of the icehouse stairway railing. So why publish a much belated icehouse stairway railing postmortem?
Short Answer: Crossing the finish line of this persistent challenge slipped through the cracks in my day-to-day accounts (despite the vexing, humbling, and ultimately super rewarding character arc). So better late than never!
Longer Short Answer: Installing the loft stairway railing burgeoned in significance as a seemingly small (but stubbornly antagonistic) impediment in the icehouse rehabilitation timeline. Ultimately completed eleven months ago, I experienced immediate relief and then shifted my focus to remaining items on the finish scope of work (aka “the punch list”). It took some time for me to circle back and revisit this still tender storyline, to reflect on the trials and the eventual reward, and to properly acknowledge implications and useful takeaways from this undertaking. Now I’m ready to see this late stage obstacle for what it was.
[NB: Since storyline is so often my lens for digesting experience, and adventure the paradigm (bias?!) with which I measure merit, I should have prologued today’s post with a clear caveat lector that my perspective and my vernacular tend to lean literary even when mired in the context of construction.]
Long Answer: The rest of this post, largely recounted visually, is an attempt to answer the question above. Why am I’m publishing this belated post?
I should start by acknowledging that my sense of accomplishment upon completing installation of the icehouse stairway railing was monumental. I first wrote “huge”, but modesty belies just how big completing this (now almost unnoticeable) task felt at the time. Remember my January 8, 2023 Instagram update: “Stairway to loft is framed! Another momentous milestone…” and blog post?
An avalanche of accolades on Hroth and Matt for successfully completing the stair framing to the icehouse loft. Bravo! (Source: Stair Framing to the Loft is Complete!)
The stair framing milestone was one of many meaningful benchmarks between the autumn 2022 initiation of our icehouse adaptive reuse project and the spring/summer 2023 hustle to pare down the final punch list. But it paled in comparison to the day the last baluster was installed. I was ecstatic. No, that’s not 100% accurate. I was the ecstatic equivalent of relieved. Massively alleviated and unburdened? Blissfully disencumbered?
And yet the tale remained untold for almost a year. You see, Rosslyn adventures accrue at a brisker pace than my pen can record. Too often my contemplation and documentation capacities lag behind the enthralling ebb and flow of life and rehabilitation on the Adirondack Coast! Lapses are inevitable, and sometimes that’s for the best. Often, however, I dog-ear happenings, even full chapters, with an eye to backlogging when time allows. But time’s an always fleeting and often uncooperative companion, so these ellipses rarely receive the attention I intended. Today’s overdue update on the icehouse stairway railing will be the first of several exceptions as I attempt to fill in a few of the more notable gaps in my icehouse rehabilitation narrative.
In the interest of streamlining today’s account, I’d planned to lean on photo essay and scrapbook-y asides to fill in the gaps. But words begat more words, and the many photos might be better consolidated into a video. If I win an extra allotment of time anytime soon — where the heck is THAT lottery?! — I may circle back to flesh out this mostly visual skeleton.
Mentor vs. Micromanager
Okay, mentorship is a stretch. But effective delegation comes close to what I’m striving toward, hoping to achieve in many of my endeavors. However, as I’ve admitted before, when it comes to construction, design, landscaping, gardening, etc. I’m a micromanager. Not always. But *almost* always. I’m aware of my control issues. And one of my personal/professional goals in the coming years is to better learn how to manage without micromanaging, to orchestrate without interfering, to delegate without backseat driving. Stay tuned!
In any case, I had envisioned the icehouse project as an opportunity to begin relinquishing control in proportion to the appetites, capacities, and accomplishments of our team. In many cases, this was a remarkable success, far more than a footnote in the “Rosslyn University” subplot that threads its way through Susan and my renovations over the last 20+ years together. In fact, many of my icehouse rehab posts have celebrated the performance and triumphs of the individuals who came together and collaborated on this unique adaptive reuse endeavor.
Unfortunately, if inevitably, I sometimes misjudged the character or capacity of a team member. Or circumstance evolved beyond the conceivable scope at the outset and changes had to be made. I’m an advocate for a second chances. And third chances. But after that the gig is up!
Over the years I’ve settled on an imperfect but functional acronym to reference these duds, deadbeats, and disappointments in order to 1) eliminate public shaming and to 2) properly emphasize the many — and far more notable — outstanding contributors to Rosslyn’s two century history by anonymizing (think “unnaming”) and homogenizing the washouts. The acronym, OPUD, stands for overpromise, underdeliver. Simple and straightforward.
Today’s postmortem is the aftermath of parting company with one of these OPUDs. No amount of mentorship or micromanagement was going to avert a slow and painful fiasco.
Back on August 13, 2023 I shared a lengthy update on the “Loft Guardrail” project that I’d inherited because of said OPUD. Here’s an excerpt.[Let’s start with] the inconvenient-but-overdue termination of an habitually untimely, underperforming (I’m being generous!) subcontractor who had been charged with custom cabinetry, stairway railing, and loft guardrail…
[…]
[The OPUD’s] fumbling and bumbling would appear comical if we weren’t paying it, depending on it, wasting time and digital ducats endeavoring to communicate and coordinate with it, and generally enduring its disfunction and dyspeptic demeanor. (Source: Cocky Pop & Poppycock)
[…]
Apart from the initial wave of euphoric relief (after notifying the incompetent carpenter that we’d be discontinuing his services effective immediately), the reality soon settled upon me… [that] I’d most likely be continuing and concluding the cabinetry, stairway handrail, and loft guardrail on my own.
I’m not suggesting that this was a surprise. It had occurred to me long before deciding to abbreviate the OPUD’s lackluster tenure. In fact, it had been a big part of my consideration.
I’m not a carpenter. But I do have some limited experience fabricating and installing cabinetry. And I have lots of experience designing, engineering, and instructing others how to fabricate and install cabinetry. So, considering the unabashedly substandard skills the OPUD had exhibited during partial fabrication and installation of the cabinetry, there remained little question in my mind whether or not I could execute at least as well, if not considerably better.
But the guardrail and handrail installation were more daunting than the cabinetry… [ and] I had inherited decisions that didn’t make 100% sense to me…
[…]
Many sketches later — and considerably more math than my literary-centric brain prefers — I felt reasonably confident that I could execute the project… (Source: Loft Guardrail)
That humbling foray into guardrailing and stair-railing the icehouse stairway was followed up on August 31, 2023, a little over two weeks after the first post with a short update, “Handrails [Almost] Complete“. By that point most of the challenge had been met, but I offered only a brief update with a promise to fill in the gaps later. The truth is I was sooo ready to put this behind me. The triumph of completion was good. Really, really good. But this adventure has devoured a LOT of my time, and I was eager to move forward. That said, I sincerely intended to fulfill my promise with a thoughtful postmortem. But then almost fifteen months burbled past without me following through.
Hold your breath no longer!
Today’s update is the chance to turn the page. Mentorship fail. Micromanagement fail. But problem solving victory, carpentry victory, and successful-completion-hard-earned-and-so-much-sweeter-for-it VICTORY!
Progress Report, Spring 2023
As so often in my note taking and dispatch drafting, I scribble observations and reminders that get buried. More important happenings and an endless parade of drawings and decisions take center stage. But by way of semi-insightful flashback earlier in the workflow and evolution of the handrail and guardrail tasks, I’d like to rewind this adventure to spring 2023 when the OPUD was still bumbling along. These notes were part of a follow-up email to the crew after a site visit. Think progress report mixed with collaborative brainstorm.
The bottom rails and balusters will be painted the same color as the interior trim, and the handrail will be fabricated out of ash/elm (originally to be clear sealed with marine varnish, but instead changing to nontoxic poly seal like floor) to integrate subtly but elegantly with the mixed species ash and elm flooring, drawing attention away from the painted stairs, shelves, etc. I’m hoping that this delicate detail will add some levity while augmenting the visual cohesion between the two floors, effectively transforming the stairway and loft railing into an important design element. Please consider the following notes prior to our Monday meeting:
Rails: as we evolve this plan, we need to keep in mind that the bottom rails along the west end of the loft need to be fabricated and installed soon in order to fast-track loft flooring installation. For this reason we should brainstorm an optimal plan, adapting A402 details 1 and 1A. One consideration, for example, is that we should finalize balusters size, spacing, etc. in order to mortise in the balusters prior to installation.
Handrail: I mentioned to a couple of you that I’m not 100% happy with the hand railing as drawn, and I’d like to think this through further. Obviously we need to confirm with Colin [code officer] precise dimensional requirements, etc., but I think it would be wise to widen the railing to allow for a more significant size difference with baluster. Over time this railing will endure plenty of leaning, etc. and there’s only the most nominal wood allowance (once the balusters are mortised in) in the current drawing. I’m envisioning the balusters at 1-1/2” x 1-1/2” so that a railing would allow sufficient wood for structural integrity over time. Let’s confirm specs with Colin and work from there. Also worth looking at the two railings in the main house for inspiration. The original (main entrance/foyer stairway) is under-built by modern code, but the new one we designed down from the bar is pretty stout. Let’s get some constructive collaboration going on a suitable railing profile, perhaps influenced by these other two examples inside the home. I’m looking to all of you for feedback. I’m especially keen to have the railing stock (loft and stairway) contrast with the painted balusters, etc. by fabricating out of our homegrown ash and/or elm.
Newells: At present Tiho’s drawings do not call for newell posts, but after visiting I’m second-guessing this decision. In particular it may be worth evaluating inclusion of newels on both sides at top of stairway, at the landing interior (ie. bottom of west rail from loft to landing) and exterior (ie. west side of landing transition from the horizontal railing to the rake balustrade down to ground floor), and at the very bottom of the staircase. Let’s weigh the pros and cons in our Monday meeting to finalize a decision and troubleshoot alterations to balusters if necessary.
Balusters: As discussed (and mentioned above), I’m envisioning the balusters at 1-1/2” x 1-1/2” but this is not set in stone. See note above regarding handrail, etc.
Alas, the principal contributor to this creative collaboration was the least interested in actually collaborating. Or communicating. Or carpentry. Or completing the undertaking we’d been assured would be “a piece of pie”. Much like hitting the agreed upon deadlines. Also, “a piece of pie”. But, pie or not, cutting the OPUD loose and learning-by-doing, I’m now relieved and grateful to conclude this icehouse stairway railing postmortem with a celebratory gallery chronicling the journey and the handsome results. Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way!
What do you think?