Storage (second floor)

The second floor storeroom ("ante-attic") will be used for storage only for the time being.  Once the rest of the house is in living condition and the money seems to be back to normal (will it?) I'll think about installing a second small bathroom mainly for use of the guests in the guest room - but this is still very much in my dreams right now.  Still, it pays to plan such things as I can already install everything I will need on this floor as well.

This is what you can see from the door of the room.   It is actually the same size as the office and lies directly above it.  It seems much smaller at first sight, but this is mainly due to the lower ceiling.

The inclined roof as well as the inside walls have been patched up with chalkboard (a nice touch in this case) and will only need some plaster, wallpaper and paint to be ready for use.  The remaining outer wall is another matter, but I'll cross that bridge once this gets more definite.
The other end of the external wall with yet another chimney crossing through - the building seems to be made up of chimneys!

The ladder leads to the attic and the hole in the ceiling is what it seems to be: a big hole without any closing mechanism.  This means I'll have to get creative ...
Things are starting to look different around here.  I have started with the ugly grey-brown-sooty wall and have covered it up in plasterboard (the type I hate so much, but it serves its purpose in moderation).   Once the plaster has set, I will place a wooden frame in front of the bit of wall you can see on the picture to the right and cover it in plasterboard as well.  The last bit had to be treated differently because of a metal staff that stabilises the back wall of my house, but actually that gives me an excluse to build yet another surface that can serve as a depository of stuff ...

On the left side, please note that the nondescript opening to the attic has been fixed and is only waiting for a decent cover to be installed.  Next stop: stairs leading to this very opening!
Things are moving along fine now.  The plasterboard has dried into place, the grooves have been filled up nicely, the corner construction is neatly in place and the room looks fine - at least as fine as a room without wallpapering and a lick of paint can look.  The white spots on the pictures are actually plastered bits to cover the screws that hold the whole thing together - they will disappear soon under a nice coat of wallpaper.

The big thing in this area, however, is the set of fixed stairs.  I have run into the same old problems I had all over the house: not a single wall is at right angles, the chimney is NOT straight but bends in all directions, the floor is not flat (who would have thought?), so constructing these stairs is a real challenge.  I had the timber sawed to measure and yet I have to fiddle around with my saw and measuring tape.  On the other hand, it wouldn't be much fun otherwise, right?  In any case, the stairs are progressing and will reach the top of the room pretty soon.  I will need some wood to cover the actual stairs, though, before I can use it properly.   The attic is off limits right now as I had to discard the old metal ladder in order to place the new stairs ...
The upper part of the stairs has been done - at least the timber structure is in place now.  Before I can continue and actually put stairs on the structure, I'll have to wallpaper the two adjacent walls in order to be able to do that job properly.  No big thing: I'll have to order the stairs anyway and delivery will take a couple of days.

To the right side, another view of the "finished" product and the amount of work still ahead of me.   I am moving along according to plan, though..
Things are looking good: the wallpaper is on - except around the opening to the attic.  I have placed the order for the missing bits and pieces like planks for the actual stairs (now that I have the exact measurements, this is just a question of screwing them in place) and the beams and planks for the storage unit that will go below the "window").  Next thing to do: paint that wall: I'll pay the paint shop a visit tomorrow.

I will have to move the light to a more convenient location where I won't hit my head each time I go up and down those new stairs.
Nearly done ... things are looking up, especially with this colour scheme: piggy pink, dark rose and silver gray.  What more could I wish for?  The stairs were a major nightmare demanding constant improvisation, but I got to the bottom (or the top?) of it and they are ready.  Or are they?  Of course not: the stairs are only resting on top of the scaffolding because I did not have the right length of screws to fix them in place.  Another thing to be done this weekend.

In any case the whole transformation had the additional effect of me browsing through my belongings in all those boxes: talk about junk to be thrown away!  I've been living here for more than two years and things I have not missed until now can safely be thrown out, I think.