When we made the decision to lift our house nine feet in the air, we were faced with a new conundrum: how were we going to get inside a house that is basically floating in the sky? The answer was very simple – stairs – and two sets of them!
We decided to have one set of stairs going up to the front door and a second set ascending to the back porch. The design and implementation of the staircase on the side went smoothly and was a great success, but the staircase leading up to the front door was a bit more problematic. The original design didn’t work when we saw it in real life, real time (see: “I’ll Know It When I See It”). John, who actually has a great eye for special solutions, came up with the idea to dogleg the stairs and create a landing halfway up the staircase. Problem solved, right? Not so fast.
Unfortunately, in order to make this design a reality, a new permit was required, as was agreement from all my neighbors, and then a town meeting to discuss. So, again we went to the town of Branford for all our required approvals. Even though the town has been consistently efficient and helpful throughout this entire renovation process it still took a grand total of three months to get this done. The payoff has indeed been sweet though, as we have reached the major milestone of being able to enter our home through the front door. Victory at last!
