… building the staircase to the first floor in the lean-to, and so you can really say that we have an upstairs and a downstairs now.
The staircase is more like a ladder in a sense, because it has rungs rather than stairs, but then again there’s only a confined space to work in so it can’t be helped.
The gas bottle is in its permanent home and I’ll be drilling a hole through the wall at the back (the top edge of the photo) to pass the gas pipe through into where the kitchen will be. To change it over, you jut drag it out to the right.
And you can see the stud wall that’s in front of the stairs. I have piles of cheap tongue-and-grooving and that’s all going to be going on there in very early course (once I can find it in the barn).
The washroom, when it’s finished, will be a sort-of U-shape, from the back studding, down the side wall and then down to front wall to where the camera was when I took this shot.
We’ll have worktops (I’ve bought those already) with the washing machine underneath, a sink (there’s one of those lying about somewhere) and cupboards, which I can make. And, of course, a 12-volt immersion heater running off the surplus electricity that I generate
It doesn’t quite look like that now though. After I took the above photo I made the structure even stiffer by adding a diagonal bracing bar. That stiffened it up quite considerably and it’s all quite solid now. It’ll be stiffer even still when it’s cladded.
You can just about make out the gap in the rear studding where the gas bottle will be coming and going through. And I’ll be covering most of that rear stud wall as well, once I’ve cut up all the scrap wood in the rear section and moved it out for burning.
As you can see, this is something of a long-term project.
And in other news, my new window for the living room is ready. I’ll have to go Lapeyre at Montlucon to pick that up this weekend.
And in other other news, I seem to have become something of an unofficial sports reporter for the local newspaper.
Following Marianne’s suggestion, I’ve been sending some of the photos of FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s opponents to the reporter covering the town where they come from. And now twice – two weeks in succession, the reporter concerned has asked me to send in a match report.
It looks like you’ve room to do wider steps, which would be safer than rungs in the long run. Imagine trying to carry something down the stairs if you leave it with just rungs.
I know what you mean, but it’s only a temporary kind of arrangement. In the long term there will be a balcony outside at the front, with steps up to there from outside.