Take a step up

Here is an update on our stairs! Tyler has been hard at work these past few days on getting our stairs  completed. I am continuously amazed at his ingenuity and diligence! He is determined to complete these stairs soon! And without having to make a million trips to Home Depot, haha

For example- all the wood to make the railing came from our porch and reclaimed 2x4's since Home Depot had closed. But reclaimed wood is all the rage right now- so I guess we are just on trend ;)

Here is what it looks like at the top of the stairs. Creeeepppppy, huh! You can see the top 2 steps. 

There is what we call- dead space, between our current ceiling and the floor of the attic. 

See, our current ceiling is about 8 1/2 feet tall. But the original ceilings were about 12 feet. Someone thought it was a great idea to make the ceiling 3 feet shorter..... Hmmmm....

Looking at the type of materials used to shorten the ceiling, it looks like this was done in the 60's or so. And drop down ceilings were the trend around that time. 

Here is a look at the wood used, if you can actually see it from in this picture! They are actual 2 by6's. Here's is a fun fact- if you go to the hardware store and buy a 2 by 6, it actually measures about 1 3/4 by 5 7/8. Not 2 inches by 6 inches. Who knows why! But back in the day, the wood would ACTUALLY measure 2 inches by 6 inches. That's how we were able to tell when the drop down ceiling was probably added.

Here is a better look at our current ceiling height (up to the white), the original ceiling height (the cream area), and the ceiling joists. We could raise the ceiling up to the original height.... But that would be so much work and dust and lead paint. We decided not to mess with it for the time being. :)

I am, however, trying to convince Tyler that some secret passageways would be a great idea! He's not on board.....yet.

But we did have a structural engineer come and look at our roof structure. Looks like we should be able to cut those ceiling joists you see in the picture above. And restructure the support in our roof to give walking room. Yay! We're excited :)

It will be great to have the extra room. We are planning 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a family room to be added up there. Then Todd won't have to sleep in the front room anymore! But it is nice to see his cute sleeping face all the time :) .... Speaking of.....

Here he is now as I type :)

Wish us luck!

Jamie