Let's shelve that plan for now

There's nothing more boring than a blogger who, after not posting for a few days, briefly returns with a lame excuse and an insincere apology for neglecting the blog - only to once again abandon the poor, lonely blog and the faithful, long-suffering readers.

Alas, such appears to be the case here. However, in our defense, we should note that we did post a request for future topics here. Yet, the response was limited to a single comment (to be found here).

So, unless - or until - several other readers chime in with suggestions for future topics, posting is likely to become even more infrequent and the entries are likely to become even less interesting, as our renovations slowly begin to wind down.

In the meantime, let me bring you up-to-date:

On Friday, the carpenter arrived to re-measure the attic-stairwell-formerly-known-as-our-hole. Hopefully, he'll be returning some time this week.

Also, on Friday, ASG washed the playroom floor, and everyone managed to remove all the toys and books from the living room before Shabbat. Unfortunately, the pictures of the playroom have not been cleared for publication. (We haven't yet decided how we want to organize all the playroom furnishings.)

In other news, the kablan is off to Europe on vacation for a few days, which gives us about a week to empty ASG and AMG's rooms in advance of the painting. To that end, YZG and AMG once again hosed down the attic, which had become dusty again due to the installation of "Our Stairs: The Sequel", in general, and the carving out of the top stair, in particular. Afterwards, they used bleach to wash the floor and then started bringing the shelves up from AMG's room.

This is what the attic looks like now:

And:

And that's where we're holding for now.

As always, watch this space for future updates, and feel free to leave a comment*. We love hearing from you.

===============

* In response to a reader's query about comments to old posts, let me explain ("no, there is too much, let me sum up") that all comments - even those left on the older posts - come directly to us.

Deja vu all over again

(Yeah, I know. That was a very obvious title.)

B”H the masger seems to have recovered, because he showed up this morning and immediately got to work on “Our Stairs: The Sequel”.

Here’s the masger working on the supports and the brackets:

After they were in place and we tested them, the kablan took everything down so he could paint:

In due course, the paint dried (yes, it WAS like watching paint dry!), and the kablan was able to install the steps:

And here’s another view:

And – why not? – how about a view from the attic:

Here’s a close-up of one of the brackets:

And a view from the top of the staircase:

And, lastly, a view of the support attached to the floor. If you look carefully, you can see the patched up hole from the old stairs. (It’s one tile to the right.)

 

Finally, we conclude today’s posting with a very special announcement:

As of this afternoon, the erstwhile hole has been renamed and, henceforth, is to be referred to as: The Attic Stairwell!

The Our Shiputzim editorial board requests that the correct term be employed in all future correspondence. Thank you for your cooperation in this regard.

Content? Where we’re blogging we don’t NEED content

Yes, I know. Long time, no write.

The problem was that there really wasn’t much to tell. In fact, there still isn’t, but don’t worry. I won’t let the fact that I have nothing to say stop me from posting.

We begin with a brief (or maybe not so brief) survey of the assorted holes and cracks which have been patched up since our last post.

Here are some pictures from the attic:

And:

And also:

But, wait! That’s not all. We also have this picture:

And this picture:

There are, of course, plenty more where these came from, but there’s only so much excitement one can handle. So, please follow me outside. (I’m going to have to ask those of you in the back to please remain with the group. Thanks.)

Let’s see. We have this picture:

And we have this picture:

And then there’s this picture:

And, of course, this picture:

And last, but certainly not least, there is this picture:

I suspect that by now we’ve lost most of our audience, and so I believe that those of you who have stuck it out until now deserve some sort of bonus (or tchupar, if you will). How about a couple of pictures of the top attic step?

Here’s one:

And here’s another:

Wasn’t that fun?

In other news, YZG (with some help from ASG) sealed the hole up temporarily with some old particle board:

And, finally, the kablan told us that he’s giving us a present. He wants to make us some shelves out of the extra steps. Here are the brackets which he brought over before Shabbat:

That’s about it for now.

Enjoy your cheesecake and have a chag sameach!

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.

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.

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.

The one that didn't have a title

Good evening.

Okay, so I've received some feedback to the effect that the end of the previous posting was perhaps a touch overly dramatic. But, as our dedicated readers should be aware by now, this entire blog is written tongue completely in cheek.....

.....Anyway, the kablan spent the afternoon painting.

He worked on the wall over the porch, as you can see here:

And here:

He also worked on the hole, as shown here:

And here:

And finally, he did a bunch in the playroom, as evidenced here:

That's it for now.

See y'all back here tomorrow.... [all together now] .... same Our Shiputzim time, same Our Shiputzim channel.