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We interrupt this blog to wish YZG a very, very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

עד מאה ועשרים שנה

WE LOVE YOU!!!!

And now back to your regularly scheduled blog....

And the excitement continues...

Good evening, Our Shiputzim fans!

I hope you're all sitting down. Because if you thought the past few posts were exciting, you're in for a real treat today. (And if you didn't, well, then you might as well stop reading right now and go back to sleep.)

Here goes:

This morning, the kablan smoothed and cemented over the newly formed attic step, as you can see here:

Let's zoom in a bit, shall we?

Originally, he wanted to put a tile of some sort down on the step, but the problem is that we can't really afford the height. So he just used cement.

Anyway, as if that wasn't thrilling enough, the kablan then came back this afternoon and brought the masger with him. (You remember the masger, don't you? After all, he did make an appearance in the blog here.)

Together, they built a wooden mock-up of one of the supports for the stairs. (Sorry, no pictures. Apparently, all our photographers were off on other assignments and did not return until after the wood had been taken down.) Then, together with YZG, they spent some time measuring, discussing, measuring, calculating, and measuring. (Did I mention that they did a bit of measuring?)

And then... well, actually, that's all there is to report from today. But, that's a good thing, right? I mean, if this post was any more exciting, it just wouldn't be fair to all the other posts.

So, on that note, we wish you all a good night and remind our more reticent readers that they too can leave comments...

Carving out a niche for himself

Today, the kablan began working on "Our Stairs: The Sequel".

First, he took away the old supports and brackets (which he's not going to reuse) and left just the railing (which he will). Here's what the railing looks like now:

He then turned his attention to the hole, where, in a scene reminiscent of late April (see here, for example), he began carving out the attic floor:

The end result was a step about 15 cm high, as you can see here:

And here:

And also here:

And, finally, here:

Okay, so it may not be roof views. But you've gotta admit that it's still way more exciting than devek shayish and bare white walls...

That's it for now.

Have a good night and don't forget to keep your browsers turned to....

Our Shiputzim: Your exclusive source for our renovations.

Management [finally] responds

Hi.

No, we haven't abandoned the blog. It's just that no workers showed up today, and so there's really nothing to report.

However, we did receive the following note from our editorial board, who asked that we post it in their name. So here goes:

Dear Our Shiputzim readers,

It has come to our attention that certain regular readers have indicated that they would like this blog to continue even after all the renovations have been completed.

Needless to say, we are both honored and flattered by this request. Our readership is very important to us, and we have always tried to meet their needs.

We hope to debate this issue at any upcoming board meeting, but in the meantime, we have one question for the readers: Assuming that we do decide to extend the blog, what should we blog about? Please post your responses in the comment section of this post. As always, your input is very valuable to us.

In any event, please be aware that the renovations are likely to continue for some time. Several items have yet to be completed, including: the attic stairs, the attic door and guard rail, painting AMG and ASG's rooms, and furnishings for AMG's room.

Sincerely,

The Our Shiputzim Editorial Board

Good night from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

The writing is on the wall

Hellooooo, Our Shiputzim fans!

We gather that many of you have been "in metach", as the kids like to say, about the stairs. Before we get back to this topic, however, let's take a quick survey of today's other accomplishments.

First, the kablan spent some more time working on the insulation in the attic, as you can see here:


And also here:


He still has to finish up in one corner, and then he's planning on turning off the lights and using silicone to seal up any cracks where light comes through.

He also used something we like to call "devek shayish" (because that's its name) to seal up various and sundry holes and cracks.

For instance, here's one hole where the railing was attached to the floor:



And here's the other hole:



Here's a picture of the floor leading into the bathroom:





And here's ASG's room:


Yes, I know. This is even more enthralling than Friday's pictures of white bathroom walls. :-)
So, since you get the general idea, why don't we just cut to the chase and get back to the stairs.

We begin the stairs segment of today's posting with a heartfelt thank you to a certain "anonymous" (yeah, right!) engineer for his valuable help and professional advice about the stairs. His brilliant insight - namely, cutting a step into the attic floor - makes all the difference. Even the kablan was very impressed.

Anyway, as per the aforementioned engineer's suggestion, YZG and the kablan spent some time playing with string, as you can see here:


And here:


And then, they began drawing on our newly painted playroom walls, as evidenced here:


And here:


(Reminder: You can always click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.)

That's about it for now.
Have a good night and please keep those comments coming.

It's like staring at a blank wall

Reliable and dependable as always, our intrepid photojournalists managed to shoot a few pictures of the newly painted downstairs bathroom after all.

And so, without further ado, here are three bathroom views:

View #1:

View #2:

And View #3:

At this point, we could wax philosophical and use the blog as a metaphor for life. We could point out that on some days you get the color, the excitement, and, yes, the sheer and utter drama of roof views, but on other days, all you see are pictures of bare white walls.

However, we won't.

Instead, we'll leave you with the following:

[Cue: TV announcer voice]

Will a solution be found for the stair problem? Will the hole ever become an attic stairwell again? Will we be able to start using the attic for storage any time soon - or will the attic remain a vast and empty void above our heads?

Tune in next week, when we (hopefully) discover the answers to these and other intriguing questions.

Shabbat Shalom to all.

The case of the disappearing stairs

Hi.

So, remember the olden days (read: yesterday), back when we used to have an attic staircase? Well, not so much anymore:

Yeah, that's right. We're back to having a hole with a ladder leading up to it.

Here are the steps themselves, waiting ever so patiently in the corner for someone to figure out what to do with them:

And here's the metal formerly known as our railing:

Meanwhile, the downstairs bathroom is all painted. Our photography team is currently otherwise occupied, and so for now, you'll have to suffice with the following rather grainy picture:

 

Shabbat Shalom from the entire Our Shiputzim staff.

Oh, well. But it certainly was nice while it lasted

So, the railing paint dried, and the kablan went ahead and put down the steps.

Here's a view from below:

And here's a view from above:

And here's a close-up to get a feel for the color:

Now, before the accolades and the compliments begin flying in, I should report that the kablan is currently undoing the entire thing - the steps, the railing, the support, and all! What was the problem with the way it was? See if you can tell from the following picture:

Yup, that's right. By the 7th or 8th step, a grown-up has to crouch way down in order to continue upstairs. We all knew that it wasn't going to be perfect, but this is much, much worse than anyone - including the kablan himself - suspected. Anyway, to make a long story short, he's redoing the stairs. The more comfortable solution would be to make the hole bigger, but that's not really an option due to structural concerns. So, the only thing to do is to make the stairs that much steeper and, therefore, more ladder-like. Obviously, this is far from ideal, but ein mah la'asot. (To his credit, the kablan feels very bad about all this and told us that he is incurring any and all costs of the fix.)

Rest assured that our dedicated staff is closely watching this story and will continue to bring you updates as they develop.