It was Kerri's idea, it was a great idea that made sense and made everything work so much better, but having made the decision to move them the challenge was to build them. There were some constraints; the stone wall running through the house had to gotten over and the lower level ceiling gotten under. The old stairs were put up as an interim measure and it seemed like no progress could be made on the new. Until Felix turned up.

Felix is a friend Christof, the boyfriend of a friend of Chris's daughter. Christof and Felix met at high school in France. Felix is from Montauban, just north of Toulouse. Felix is a joiner. Not just a joiner, but an aspiring campagnon. Felix wants to specialise in building door frames and stairs. While visiting here he set about building stairs for the shack.

As it happened I had managed to salvage the benchtops from a lab that was being stripped out and re-built; solid timber that was going to landfill until I showed interest. There is some doubt, but the timber appears to be a mixture of Australian Ash andNew Zealand Rimu. Rimu, darker and heavier, was used for the stringers. I had the jarah treads from the old stairs and Chris contributed some lovely Tasmanian Blackwood flooring for the risers.

Peter, a cabinet maker doing some work with Chris, has a hand in things as well. He suggested that we could try finishing the stairs with the Sam Maloof finish (scroll down to Finish #4). Can't go wrong was Peter's assessment. Having tried it I agree.

Everyone who sees them agrees Felix's stairs are a thing of beauty. We all marvel at the skills of this young man.

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