Stairways to Heaven

It started out as one of those days.....we had gotten nailed with more snow then we have seen in "these" parts for a couple of years....and the pups couldn't believe it.


We had gotten a phone call to come up on the hill or I would have just been glad to sit in the office and run the ATM for all it had in it, but no....out we go.


The only reason I would have consider driving was that Jeff and his son had come up to start putting the stairways in....snow or no snow we had waited for 8 months for these boys to show and I was about to miss this.


While we were setting the rafter beams I would call and he said two weeks.
While we were setting the roof trusses I would call and he said two weeks.
While we were closing in the octagon with a crane on location I would call and he said two weeks.
While we were having the shingles nailed on I would call and he said two weeks.
So when he showed up we were like....well this should be interesting because they had to spend a whole day building a hoist system with small I-beams to lift each of the two sections in place.


If you look closely at the middle of pic you can see a samll joint between the two sections which were bolted together and as you can also see a chain is connect right around that spot. The reason was, that after two sections are bolted together it was lifted up 2 inches before being welded into place. Once the chain was removed the stair had a built in flex.


Next they had to connect the ends with the I-beams that were installed back in August after the fire. They attached a steel plate to the floor and then used a come-a-long to pull the stairs in place....and you guessed it.


Out came the portable welder and sparks were a flying......of course with a wood floor and wood floor trusses and so on......we were standing by with a water hose....just in case.


The view from down below was just a interesting as from above....it was beautiful in a way as the sparks rained down to the first floor......about 30 feet......


Mean while the kids were having fun chasing each other around.....


And AROUND.....and around.