Grandpa's Ladder

We moved upstairs back in June (see Movin' on Up) despite the fact that there are a lot of little finishing tasks that need to get done in that part of the house.  It was a good idea to make use of the space before completing everything, though.  We're a lot more comfortable having the additional space, and even if I have to look at windows without trim as a constant reminder of what needs to get done, I'm happy that we're using the whole house that we're paying for.

I was happy to take care of one of those unfinished tasks this weekend.  While still nursing my injured back, I couldn't in good faith continue work on repairing the front sill, but I could still handle a few power tools--at least enough to install a ladder to Ramon's loft.

The loft above my son's bedroom was former attic space. At some point during the rebuild it struck me that this would make a fun little space for him, especially since his bedroom is pretty small (only 9x12). The problem of course was coming up with some means for getting up there.  I wanted to leave the access space as open as possible to give the room a larger feel, so this ruled out using one of those handy pull-down staircases.  A little spiral staircase would be cool but I felt that would take up too much floor space.  The easiest thing would be to mount a ladder.

Finding a ladder to mount was the problem.  I nice iron ladder, custom made would have been nice but was not in the budget.  I knew I'd have an easier time mounting a wooden ladder, but these days wooden ladders are hard to come by.  I remembered that my dad had an old wooden extension ladder but he had recently moved from the old homestead in order to downsize and escape the burden of home maintenance. (I might do that too someday.)  I called up my brother Pete, and sure enough, he saved that old ladder from the trash heap and was willing to donate it to the cause.

It turned out to be the perfect solution.  The metal brackets that held the extension pieces together made for fine mounting hardware, and the little pulley for lifting the extension is fun way to get stuff up and down out of the loft.

Admittedly, watching 6 year old Ramon climb the old wooden rungs 8 feet into the loft has me holding my breath a little, but he seems pretty happy with it.  And I'm happy to have my big stepladder back which he's been using to get up and down until now.

handyman