Stairway To Attic

Sometime in the evening darkness of Friday August 13, 2004 an enormous oak tree was blown over, up-rooted by 100mph+ hurricane force winds. Charley had come to town.


The fifty-foot oak with a trunk diameter of about three feet fell on to a corner of our garage, branches in its large canopy mostly missing the the roof, all except the ones that didn't. Those branches opened a 4X10 slash through the roof.


The roof has long been repaired and replaced. The damage to the interior garage ceiling has never yet been dealt with. Oh, I removed hanging debris [for the most part] i.e. wet drywall, hanging bats of insulation. In so doing I opened up a large space between rafters which has made it easier to get large objects into storage up above the garage that the relatively tiny fold-down access stairs allow.


I've been thinking about what I wanted to do with that lack of ceiling, about 4 feet out all across the garage back wall. The house and garage are both 2 stories, the area over the garage storage space, not living space. You have to think these things through. I've decided to build a Stairway to Attic.

And you thought this was going to be an allegory, didn't you?


Next: Preliminary measurements, trip to Home Depot and wondering about pulling a permit