Stairs in Progress

This week we started assembling the parts for the loft stairs, which is technically a ladder.  Last night I put the first round of stain on the wood.  Below are some pictures of it propped up in the garage to dry.

This is cypress wood, with a cherry stain.

The whole thing will be a lot more vertical when it's actually installed.  As a "ship ladder" it will form a 70 degree angle to the wall.  That will be pretty steep, but we have to get up pretty high, and if we made it less steep then the base would stick out very far into the room below.  We'll be adding handrails that skim just above the side boards, so that should make it a lot easier to get up and down.

I loosened up the screws on the sides so that the stain would coat completely, making sure that we don't have any bare wood spots.  We'll be taking this apart to haul up to the cabin, and reassembling it there.