A Brand New Staircase

A visit from Carl and his brother, plus an entire weekend of work, equals a new staircase for the studio.  The old staircase did not leave a lot of head room at the top (due to the angled roof on the side of the house), therefore Graham had to create a landing about four steps down from the top and turn the entire staircase 90 degrees to the left.  It involved cutting a hole in the guest bedroom wall and ceiling along with a lot of use of Carl's new favorite tool (the handsaw). 

After it was all said and done, Jen's new favorite quote was compliments of Carl:  "The most valuable lesson I learned from this project was that when I call someone to make sure they have all the tools to finish the project, I need to make sure to ask which tools they have"......let's just say that if Graham had something other than a handsaw for a majority of the project, it would have gotten done much quicker.

But, in the end, it is finished and mighty beautiful!  It also feels very strong (most important of course!).  And now we are one "step" closer to finishing the studio!!

For the most part Jen tried to stay out of the way during the construction process.  However, upon visiting the upstairs she made the mistake of asking "Why is the guest bedroom door shut?"  She quickly learned Carl's brother was in there sawing through the wall and ceiling creating quite a dust storm.  Jen wondered how he ended up being the one to do that job, and also why he didn't open the window.

Jen and Graham quickly got the window open and fan blowing for fear Carl's brother was going to run out of breathable oxygen!

Here's what it looked like when all the dust settled:

Jen's poor shoes

Jen is beginning to wonder how she is ever really going to get the register completely clean

The layer of dust that quickly covered the entire room

The mess left behind on the floor

By the end of the night, however, there was a hole in the ceiling (notice Graham peeking through the hole from inside the studio)

The next steps included cutting a hole out of Graham's closet and through the guest bedroom wall:

Graham (inside his closet on the second floor) and Carl (sitting up in the studio) discussing the next steps

The start of the hole in the wall....

.....and the start of another messy floor!

Looking through to the guest bedroom (and up into the studio)

almost done.....

SUCCESS!!!

At this point, however, Jen was looking at a huge hole in the wall and ceiling and really beginning to wonder if this was a good idea.  The boys proved her wrong, though, and built a beautiful landing and stairway:

a view into the guest bedroom from the studio's landing

another view into the bedroom

the framing was done, now time for the actual stairs

now there was a solid way to get up to the studio

Carl and Graham thinking "oh fun, time for sheet rock"

Figuring out where to put the first piece up

Just about there.....

and it's official, the first piece of sheet rock for any studio-related project is up!

a fun surprise for the next owners!