Tread carefully….

Many moons ago; maybe six years, we decided that the lethal access to the terrace bedroom needed addressing urgently. ( HA!)
The reason for the crazy perch of that doorway over the stairs is that the terrace bedroom side of the house was originally, the barn, tacked onto the living spaces of the house as a mid 20thc afterthought.

Three doorways were punched through, one on each level, to connect one side of the house to the other.
To say that two of these three access points were sited without due care and attention would be understatement of the decade. So, one leaps athletically from the existing and unaltered staircase to the terrace bedroom doorway with care.

So, we cut new stairs in 2.5 cm thick “Pin Maritime”hard pine ( each one COMPLETELY DIFFERENT) and will basically be wrapping the existing staircase.

To get the shape right for each step and follow the mad curves in the wall, we cut a paper pattern for each individual step starting from the top. Just cut a piece of paper slightly larger all round than the step and then you can fold and trim to the perfect shape .
Please note:stair four on photo two (shaped step) will have a small triangular piece tacked on to that step to run against the wall.

Like I said, we cut the new staircase several years ago, then started other projects. Trev has now reached the ” lets finish one room at a time ” stage so, as kitchen nearly finished ; well , decor and floor and walls anyhow, we may just finish the top staircase next.

So, we go and look for the wood.
Since we cut the stairs the ground floor demolitions and new walls and doorway installation has necessitated moving our materials around; meaning that the different stacks of wood in the cave have slightly blended together .
So to find all the staircase components we were obliged to tidy the cave for the first time since forever. Maybe the first time ever.
My daughter rang.
“guess what we’ve done for the first time in eight years?!” I said with notable excitement
( I meant tidy the cave of course)
She paused for a nanosecond and replied thus…
“Had a day off ?”………..