I was seven when Led Zeppelin released "Stairway to Heaven", but the title of the song fits today perfectly. There are many images to add to show the events of the day, which I will do tomorrow, but it was a fun-filled adventure. The stairs and the boom (crane) truck showed up around 9:00. The adventure began with the boom operator struggling to secure footing for his truck in the ice. A crowbar and a sledge hammer did the trick, and he had sure footing for the side supports of the truck. Then came the debate over how to strap the steps to the winch. After those decisions were made, the stairs were lifted into the air and aimed straight for the window on the third floor.

Then came the challenge of how to get them through the window. I was impressed with the amount of testosterone flowing in that room this morning. That has to be what it was, as I can't think of anything else that would have clouded the judgement of so many men all at once. You see, there is one simple law that Newton wrote about some time ago, and that is that if you are holding something and let go of it, it falls to the ground. That simple little "fact" seemed to escape several people today, but truth, gravity, and the theory of relativity prevailed. Once the first strap was cut, the 700lb stairs did in fact fall into the waiting platform prepared, and they were safely brought into the third floor.

From there it took a lot of muscles, which were now pumped up by all the bickering, to move the stairs over and into position. With some clever placement of eye hooks and supporting 2x4s, the stairs were lowered by ropes to the second floor. Then came the adventure of securing them, getting the right headroom, and putting them in place. Along the way I noticed what seemed to be a design issue with the stairs. A quick searchon Google found this picture:

Notice at the top of the riser there is an "L" shaped cut. This allows the riser to meet the bottom of the floor above. Well, that little triangle is missing, but will hopefully be "glued back" there by Lynn, the Stair Rail Master.