It's been over 20 years since our house fire, and all we had was a door to nowhere from the 2nd floor south bedroom. However, Quentin assured me on his last visit, that the door was used as an escape route for teenagers in the house, even though there weren't any stairs! That wasn't very comforting to know!!
Orlo Knight began work on our new deck and fire escape from the 2nd floor on Friday. Though not one to "lie down on the job", Orlo discovered he had to do just that in order to get the dirt out of the holes for the support beams. He would first loosen it, then reach in with his hand and pull the dirt out, until he got it to the correct level. He had to do this for three holes and it took him the better part of day one.
The 1st bean across is supported by the wood beneath the door, as well as metal rods from the chimney, and then a post on the south end. Orlo's crew consists of him and his two boys, but he did have his dad come over to help hoist the heavy beams into place. We were at the 24th of July parade in Monticello when all this was happening.
It's amazing what this guy could do, practically all by himself. 
The deck is high enough and wide enough that he had to trim some of the maple tree in order to put up the 2nd beam. The stairs will come down right next to the house, so the cement area will remain still pretty open to traffic, including kids riding toys!
Once they had the support beams in place is went a lot faster. By the time we got home from the Monticello Parade about 12:30, they were ready to start putting the decking on.
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