Can A Ballroom Be Far Behind?

In preparing for the very busy upcoming summer, with the ginormous GroopShop gathering (more than 40 participants with additional guests, etc.) of the Professional Refinisher’s Group late this month, I dove into the last big construction project before turning my attentions and energies the the monumental task of bringing about order into the mountain of tools and wood throughout the space.

Much of GroopShop will take place up on the fourth floor, which my wife persuaded me to finish as an uninterrupted space last spring.  It confirmed her smartitude as the tennis court sized room with an 18-foot ceiling is a grand place to gather.

But, to use such a space there needed to be multiple stairways to get the crowd up and down.  I built a “barn stairs” two summers ago when it was just crude storage up there, but they are very steep and very narrow, unsuited for moving any more than a handful of people up and down.

I decided to annex part of the north balcony space for a new, less steep and wider stairway to the fourth floor, and finished it off yesterday morning.  It’s an 8/12 pitch and 36″ wide, so it serves the needs well.

I embellished the main post — vintage (and hard as a rock!) southern yellow pine left over from the original barn configuration — with a pair of 19th French carvings, a gift from my earliest and greatest mentor, Fred Schindler.  I think they are just the right touch for some rough barn stairs.