A people house has things like… stairs

Helloooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

As our long time readers will no doubt recall, I ruined the dramatic impact of the kablan’s exit in this post by noting that he was going to come back at some point:

“To touch up the paint in the downstairs bathroom.”

Well, yesterday turned out to be the big day.

The kablan scraped off the paint where it had cracked, spackled, and then put on two coats of paint. Instead of posting a picture, I refer you to this post. The walls now look exactly as they did then. (Hopefully, this time they’ll continue to look like they do now…)

Meanwhile, while he was here, the kablan put the leftover steps up on the wall as shelves:

As you can see in the above picture, there’s actually one more step sitting on top of the bookshelf below. That fourth step – or shelf, if you will – was meant to be the top step and is therefore not as deep as the other steps. So, if we want to put it up on the wall, we need to get different brackets.

And that’s about it for now.

Have a good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

P.S. In case you were wondering - no, the carpenter did not come today, but there’s always “tomorrow”…

Episode #82 - in which the carpenter hatches an idea

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

I’m pleased to report that you’re in for a real treat tonight. After weeks of anticipation, the carpenter is finally making his long-awaited blog debut right here in this very entry.

Yes, that's right. As our loyal readers know, the carpenter has been scheduled to arrive for some time now, and this afternoon, he finally showed up and immediately got to work on our brand-new attic hatch door.

Let's go to the videotape pictures.

Here's a view from inside the attic:

Shall we get a bit closer?

This is a close-up of the latch when the door is open:

Here's the railing with the hatch open:

This is a view from below of the attic stairwell with the hatch closed:

As you can see here, YZG still needs to seal up the holes around the railing:

Those of you who were really excited* to read about this latest addition to our renovations - and I can only assume that this includes our entire readership - will be thrilled to learn that the carpenter is due to make another appearance or two here at Our Shiputzim.

When will that be and what will he be doing, you ask? Ahhhh, but that would be telling...

In the meantime, please keep those comments coming and have a good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

__________

*Okay, so maybe it didn't measure up to roof views, but then again, how many things actually do?

“I think you’re bluffing.” “It’s possible… I might be bluffing”

So, as predicted, blogging has become more and more infrequent, due to lack of-

Rrrring. Rrrring.

Oh, sorry. That’s my phone. It looks like it’s the Executive Editor of the blog. I’m going to have to take that, but I’ll put it on speaker phone, so you can listen in.

Me: Hello?

EEOTB: Hi, ALG? Listen. We received your memo about having nothing to write about, and we just don’t understand why you’re having this problem.

Me: Well, the renovations are winding down, and not much is really happening this week.

EEOTB: So? What does that have to do with anything? We expect you to keep blogging. We don’t want our advertising revenue to decrease, you know.

Me: Um, we don’t have any advertisers.

EEOTB: Yeah, whatever. The point is – why don’t you do what you usually do: Get some pictures from the Photography Department and add some words?

Me: But that’s just it! The Photography Department says that they have no new pictures!

EEOTB: Who said anything about new pictures?

Me: [aware that the readers are listening in] You’re not suggesting…?!!!

EEOTB: Look. We all know that roof views are very popular. So, give the readers some song and dance about how the roof was not at the right angle and how it needs to be replaced… yadda, yadda… and then you can rerun the old roof views while claiming that we’re “rebuilding” the roof. You can call it “Our Roof: The Sequel” just like you did with the st-

Me: [interrupts] Oh! [tries to contain the damage] You mean, the stop sign?

EEOTB: [clueless] Huh?! The stop sign?! What are you talking about? Are you feeling okay? No, I mean, I want you to pretend that we’re rebuilding the roof, just like you pretended with the st-

Me: [realizes it’s time to end this conversation] Like I did with the stereo? Okay, then. Thanks for calling. Goodbye. [Quickly slams the phone down]

Memo to self: DELETE this post ASAP!!!

Deja vu all over again

(Yeah, I know. That was a very obvious title.)

B”H the masger seems to have recovered, because he showed up this morning and immediately got to work on “Our Stairs: The Sequel”.

Here’s the masger working on the supports and the brackets:

After they were in place and we tested them, the kablan took everything down so he could paint:

In due course, the paint dried (yes, it WAS like watching paint dry!), and the kablan was able to install the steps:

And here’s another view:

And – why not? – how about a view from the attic:

Here’s a close-up of one of the brackets:

And a view from the top of the staircase:

And, lastly, a view of the support attached to the floor. If you look carefully, you can see the patched up hole from the old stairs. (It’s one tile to the right.)

 

Finally, we conclude today’s posting with a very special announcement:

As of this afternoon, the erstwhile hole has been renamed and, henceforth, is to be referred to as: The Attic Stairwell!

The Our Shiputzim editorial board requests that the correct term be employed in all future correspondence. Thank you for your cooperation in this regard.

Content? Where we’re blogging we don’t NEED content

Yes, I know. Long time, no write.

The problem was that there really wasn’t much to tell. In fact, there still isn’t, but don’t worry. I won’t let the fact that I have nothing to say stop me from posting.

We begin with a brief (or maybe not so brief) survey of the assorted holes and cracks which have been patched up since our last post.

Here are some pictures from the attic:

And:

And also:

But, wait! That’s not all. We also have this picture:

And this picture:

There are, of course, plenty more where these came from, but there’s only so much excitement one can handle. So, please follow me outside. (I’m going to have to ask those of you in the back to please remain with the group. Thanks.)

Let’s see. We have this picture:

And we have this picture:

And then there’s this picture:

And, of course, this picture:

And last, but certainly not least, there is this picture:

I suspect that by now we’ve lost most of our audience, and so I believe that those of you who have stuck it out until now deserve some sort of bonus (or tchupar, if you will). How about a couple of pictures of the top attic step?

Here’s one:

And here’s another:

Wasn’t that fun?

In other news, YZG (with some help from ASG) sealed the hole up temporarily with some old particle board:

And, finally, the kablan told us that he’s giving us a present. He wants to make us some shelves out of the extra steps. Here are the brackets which he brought over before Shabbat:

That’s about it for now.

Enjoy your cheesecake and have a chag sameach!

And the excitement continues...

Good evening, Our Shiputzim fans!

I hope you're all sitting down. Because if you thought the past few posts were exciting, you're in for a real treat today. (And if you didn't, well, then you might as well stop reading right now and go back to sleep.)

Here goes:

This morning, the kablan smoothed and cemented over the newly formed attic step, as you can see here:

Let's zoom in a bit, shall we?

Originally, he wanted to put a tile of some sort down on the step, but the problem is that we can't really afford the height. So he just used cement.

Anyway, as if that wasn't thrilling enough, the kablan then came back this afternoon and brought the masger with him. (You remember the masger, don't you? After all, he did make an appearance in the blog here.)

Together, they built a wooden mock-up of one of the supports for the stairs. (Sorry, no pictures. Apparently, all our photographers were off on other assignments and did not return until after the wood had been taken down.) Then, together with YZG, they spent some time measuring, discussing, measuring, calculating, and measuring. (Did I mention that they did a bit of measuring?)

And then... well, actually, that's all there is to report from today. But, that's a good thing, right? I mean, if this post was any more exciting, it just wouldn't be fair to all the other posts.

So, on that note, we wish you all a good night and remind our more reticent readers that they too can leave comments...

Carving out a niche for himself

Today, the kablan began working on "Our Stairs: The Sequel".

First, he took away the old supports and brackets (which he's not going to reuse) and left just the railing (which he will). Here's what the railing looks like now:

He then turned his attention to the hole, where, in a scene reminiscent of late April (see here, for example), he began carving out the attic floor:

The end result was a step about 15 cm high, as you can see here:

And here:

And also here:

And, finally, here:

Okay, so it may not be roof views. But you've gotta admit that it's still way more exciting than devek shayish and bare white walls...

That's it for now.

Have a good night and don't forget to keep your browsers turned to....

Our Shiputzim: Your exclusive source for our renovations.

The writing is on the wall

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

We gather that many of you have been "in metach", as the kids like to say, about the stairs. Before we get back to this topic, however, let's take a quick survey of today's other accomplishments.

First, the kablan spent some more time working on the insulation in the attic, as you can see here:


And also here:


He still has to finish up in one corner, and then he's planning on turning off the lights and using silicone to seal up any cracks where light comes through.

He also used something we like to call "devek shayish" (because that's its name) to seal up various and sundry holes and cracks.

For instance, here's one hole where the railing was attached to the floor:



And here's the other hole:



Here's a picture of the floor leading into the bathroom:





And here's ASG's room:


Yes, I know. This is even more enthralling than Friday's pictures of white bathroom walls. :-)
So, since you get the general idea, why don't we just cut to the chase and get back to the stairs.

We begin the stairs segment of today's posting with a heartfelt thank you to a certain "anonymous" (yeah, right!) engineer for his valuable help and professional advice about the stairs. His brilliant insight - namely, cutting a step into the attic floor - makes all the difference. Even the kablan was very impressed.

Anyway, as per the aforementioned engineer's suggestion, YZG and the kablan spent some time playing with string, as you can see here:


And here:


And then, they began drawing on our newly painted playroom walls, as evidenced here:


And here:


(Reminder: You can always click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.)

That's about it for now.
Have a good night and please keep those comments coming.