Project Information
Hi Jocks 
I'm back from the mountains, with a GREAT LOT of work done at last. We finally managed to kick mom's dirtware out of the workshop and can now use it as it should be - to build tools on my side, and for furniture restoration on daddy's side. Consecutively I have at last been able to start building the carcasses of the two fake cabinets for my bedroom (which will be featured in a full post this summer, check the blog for a post on the progress).
So I spent the better part of the first two weeks prepping the basement with 'pa, which involved heavy armed concrete breaking (the opening was too short for full stairs, only 1 meter long by 80 cm large) and the construction of stairs which double as shelves. Mom has accumulated a huge collection of totally useless kitchenalia, among which so many plates, glasses and dishes that we could certainly open a restaurant… so to hell they went, but I kept two compartments for my own use - one for my liquors and a hidden compartment under the two bottom stairs for all the electronics that will run the basement's air controlling.
I also managed to kick the sis outta her bedroom and have her help out with the cutting of the rather heavy pine boards for the staircase. Having watched so many NYWS episodes with her, she was really pleased to finally be able to put her hands in the dirt and cut some lumber on the table saw with big bro (and she found a lot of funny critters in the wood grain and drew over them with a pencil as you can see by the second picture
This was done in the outdoor garage (the shop has been completely emptied after the basement was complete) then disassembled and built back for keeps in the basement.
Construction is pretty straightforward but it took me four different plans to actually get the right combination of stair depth, total length vs available height, and strength. The stairs themselves are made in blocks of two, with the grain running parallel to the ground on the side rails which double as supports for the stairs (mind you I didn't manage to get pictures of the installed staircase for lack of space in the basement and distance for my widest angle camera lens - next time) but each one of the steps that remain open in these pictures actually have another supporting block on each side with the grain running perpendicular to the ground: I designed this thing to be rock-solid, and it certainly is, with endgrain support whereever it's needed and long grain rails everywhere. Each pair of stairs is dadoed into the longest adjacent vertical support and screwed to the endgrain of the shorter, the rails are screwed and the joint between two steps on each pair gets the full treatment: glue, screws AND dowels into endgrain supports. This thing isn't breaking anytime soon.
The fifth picture shows the whole stuff ready to get down to the basement and be installed. I'll shoot the finished thing in details next time this summer, time was short and I wanted things to move fast so I didn't bring the DSLR to the basement. I was too busy taxiing granny around (93) in the wheelbarrow as you can see
More pictures of the construction in the blog post
And oh, if you guys want the plans for this bulky stuff, do chime in!
I'm back from the mountains, with a GREAT LOT of work done at last. We finally managed to kick mom's dirtware out of the workshop and can now use it as it should be - to build tools on my side, and for furniture restoration on daddy's side. Consecutively I have at last been able to start building the carcasses of the two fake cabinets for my bedroom (which will be featured in a full post this summer, check the blog for a post on the progress).
So I spent the better part of the first two weeks prepping the basement with 'pa, which involved heavy armed concrete breaking (the opening was too short for full stairs, only 1 meter long by 80 cm large) and the construction of stairs which double as shelves. Mom has accumulated a huge collection of totally useless kitchenalia, among which so many plates, glasses and dishes that we could certainly open a restaurant… so to hell they went, but I kept two compartments for my own use - one for my liquors and a hidden compartment under the two bottom stairs for all the electronics that will run the basement's air controlling.
I also managed to kick the sis outta her bedroom and have her help out with the cutting of the rather heavy pine boards for the staircase. Having watched so many NYWS episodes with her, she was really pleased to finally be able to put her hands in the dirt and cut some lumber on the table saw with big bro (and she found a lot of funny critters in the wood grain and drew over them with a pencil as you can see by the second picture
This was done in the outdoor garage (the shop has been completely emptied after the basement was complete) then disassembled and built back for keeps in the basement.
Construction is pretty straightforward but it took me four different plans to actually get the right combination of stair depth, total length vs available height, and strength. The stairs themselves are made in blocks of two, with the grain running parallel to the ground on the side rails which double as supports for the stairs (mind you I didn't manage to get pictures of the installed staircase for lack of space in the basement and distance for my widest angle camera lens - next time) but each one of the steps that remain open in these pictures actually have another supporting block on each side with the grain running perpendicular to the ground: I designed this thing to be rock-solid, and it certainly is, with endgrain support whereever it's needed and long grain rails everywhere. Each pair of stairs is dadoed into the longest adjacent vertical support and screwed to the endgrain of the shorter, the rails are screwed and the joint between two steps on each pair gets the full treatment: glue, screws AND dowels into endgrain supports. This thing isn't breaking anytime soon.
The fifth picture shows the whole stuff ready to get down to the basement and be installed. I'll shoot the finished thing in details next time this summer, time was short and I wanted things to move fast so I didn't bring the DSLR to the basement. I was too busy taxiing granny around (93) in the wheelbarrow as you can see
More pictures of the construction in the blog post
And oh, if you guys want the plans for this bulky stuff, do chime in!
