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  • From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Taking stupid and unnecessary risks
  • Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 13:26:57 -0500

Gene GeRue wrote:


In 1990 one million people went to the hospital or morgue from falls down stairs---and kids, elderly with second story bedrooms typically do not survive a fire whose killer heat and fumes rush up a staircase.
Two-story houses and their staircases are killers no one should allow in family living quarters any more than uncaged thirty-foot Boa Constrictors.


I am currently wrestling with a home design dilemma pertinent to this subject. I like a shed roof high toward the sun, with a row of clerestory windows above the south greenhouse-porch. Using optimal roof angle to capture November-February heat, even with the intelligent one-room house depth, perhaps 24 feet maximum, and beginning at seven feet height at the north wall, such a roof creates a very high ceiling at the south part of the interior. This is a space waste and, perhaps more importantly, represents a huge amount of cubic feet that need to be heated and cooled beyond what good solar, shade and insulation design provides. One partial solution I am exploring is having a loft library-office up there. So, to the matter of access. Elevators are too expensive. Stairs take up a lot of space and are dangerous if the mind wanders, even if made one-person wide and with overkill on the handrails. Both stairs and a heavy library ladder are problematical to aged joints. What is the solution?


tvoivozhd---too bad past years postings didn't make it into the archives. I posted a long tirade about interior stairway cost and waste of expensive space, and my love of a hexagon eyrie with 360 degrees of window as an office or place to soak in beautiful views. With this prompting, you will probably remember what I consider an ideal solution----bring the corner of the roof down to ground level, put steps on top to ascend to the eyrie. You will still need two handrails, but the ascent will be a much shallower angle than any normal interior staircase--something you arachnids should appreciate. If it was in Aspen, I would roof it over. In the unlikely event I were to build a new house today, I would have to add a couple rails and an electric cable-car---plus because of our unreliable electric utility, a mamual winch to over-ride the electric one. That's a new thought---no extra charge, even for the aged-joint contingent





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