We Have a Lift in our Lives

This week marks the start of a new way of accessing the upstairs area of our house. We now have a lift (elevator for my American friends) that makes it easier for Jill to get up and down stairs. It will enable us to live in this house for another fifteen years, or so.

The obvious place to put it was beside our stairway which brought it out in the storeroom of my upstairs study – my home office, from where I worked for just on thirty years. I didn’t really want it opening into the middle of a store room so I had the builder erect a dividing wall and open another wall  into our upstairs lounge area. I now have a much smaller storeroom but cleaning it out was a good way of deciding that we didn’t need half of its contents anyway.

IMG 1403

Our upstairs floor is an extension that we added to the house over twenty years ago and as such, the distance between the bottom floor ceiling and the top floor is a bit thicker than a normal home construction. The lift travels through a ’sleeve’ that fits between the two floors and we were lucky that it fitted by just a few millimetres. The builder took just on five days to do the carpentry and the lift installers had the lift assembled and operating over the next two days. It then took me three days to do the painting and to cut out and lay the vinyl planks on the floor.

IMG 0720

The lift travels on two poles so it doesn’t take up much space. The hole in the floor is covered by a fibreglass lid that can be walked on and is picked up by the lift and carried upwards as it ascends and then lowered back into place as the lift descends. Very smart!

IMG 0931 1  dragged

The lift was supplied by a local company called Compact Lifts and I’m happy to give them  a ‘plug’ because they were so efficient and professional in getting us from an enquiry stage to eventual installation. This lift was originally designed in Tasmania but its development was sophisticated by British designers with its mechanics coming from Germany. Of course, like everything else, it was made in China. We were lucky enough to get our order in before Chinese New Year, when all the factories in China are closed and ahead of the restrictions implemented to isolate people from the Corona Virus.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Every Day Life

There’s One More Thing

“Just One More Thing” was the phrase that Steve Jobs used at the end of an Apple World Wide Developers Conference to announce somthing important and significant before the end of the event. We finsihed our Tasmanian adventure on Saturday, staying in Geelomg overnight as the ferry was almost teo hours late in arriving. Driving […]

Read More
Every Day Life

Things I Don’t Understand

There are many things that I don’t understand.Advanced mathematics, quantum physics, and complex philosophical concepts are quite beyond me. I don’t understand the intense attitudes and ignorance of vocal racists. I have no idea why my wife waits until I have just walked out of the room before calling me back and telling me that […]

Read More
Every Day Life

We’ve Had a Very Active Four-Day Weekend

Today is Melbourne Cup Day on which the ‘Race That Stops a Nation’ is run. This horse race is always held on the first Tuesday in November and is a public holiday. Many people here take the Monday off work as well  to make a four day weekend. Our weekend actually began last Friday when […]

Read More