The Intuitive Carpenter

What is the Sound of No Steps?

Steps to Infinity

by David Aston-Reese, April 21, 2008

My wife is Infinity

She is the interface between me and our house-of-work-without-end.  For example:  All year she has been gently insisting that I get rid of the ugly temporary gang plank that all who enter our house must walk; and replace it with a real porch.  But what is the endlessness in this?  Well, the porch is destined to be connected with another walkway that will in time, go around the house, that will need a fence for privacy, that will need a gate for easy access, that will need . . . you get the concept – endlessness. 


How do you get there from here?

I guess, to my intuitive mind, it would be easier to have the front door above the grade of the driveway.  But in my world it’s the other way around.  How do I get up there from here? 

The Porch Koan 

Shhhhh . . . listen to the intuitive carpenter within . . . what is the sound of no steps?  I struggled with this puzzle for months.  Came up with various concepts, solutions.  Some more elaborate than others.  The more I struggled the more obvious it became to me – and my wife - that the porch wasn’t getting built.  And in the space time continuum the road to our endlessness was blocked!

Building the Porch! 

Aha!  Eureka!  In the sense of Heuristic, in the sense of “I’ve solved the problem!”  Or better yet, “We’ve met the solution and it's beautiful!"  The Intuitive Carpenter is on the porch!  Whoops, that's Elli!




Solution 

The obvious is what is most obvious.  If I just build the porch on the same level as the house, the steps would follow.  I will now take you on my journey of how I got from my front door to my front road.

Remove the old Gang Plank




Create an Empty Space
I

And now fill the Empty Space . . .
 The Main Ledger Boards.

 Putting 6X6 Posts.

Don't forget the Flashing around the ledger board.

Cut off excess 6X6.
And now, how to get there from here:


The Steps to the Steps 



I started with the first piece.  Dividing the height of the road from the height of the porch by three, we installed the first step “box.”



Power of the “box.” 

When I was learning how to put together cabinets, an experienced cabinetmaker said, “All you are doing is building boxes.”  Somehow calling a cabinet a “box” made it less intimidating.  After all who can’t build a “box?” 


Next Step

 
Then it was simply a process of building another box and then getting it to fit under the bluestone stepping-stone.

Now we are on our way to infinity!