Building a lift.

I just feel that I really must mention here that Mirek and Phil contributed to Diane’s future sewing projects.

Since her sewing room is in the den up by the ceiling, and her knees have been acting out a bit lately, she needed a solution to how to go up to her sewing chambers. The step ladder has become a challenge. Plus there was no way she could bring stuff up and down (like a sewing machine, or tots with fabric and other things for sewing).

So Mirek came up with an idea of building a lift. It was all spontaneous and he and Phil were using all the scrap materials available around the farm.

They did have to buy bigger size pulleys, though, and a rope of a more natural color (per Diane’s request). The rails were picked up from a neighbor who had had a garage door business for 20 years. The platform was built and screwed together by Mirek. It resembles a medieval draw bridge that closes up to be kept out of the way when not in use. The counter weights were exchanged at a local scrape yard for some smaller size weights Phil had salvaged from the high school disassembling project.

We had to leave already as we’d have to catch up with our initial plan. The lift is almost operational, with the exception of either acquiring even larger pulleys so that the rope does not create of lot of resistance and the lift is easy for Diane to use. Or, another idea was to purchase an electric motor.

“I want to be able to use my sewing room even when I’m in my 90s!” Daine was saying. “And I really like the idea of a motor!”.

Mirek left some instructions for Phil about troubleshooting the resistance problem, promised to keep in touch via email, and mentioned that we might be passing by “Nothing But Nature” on our way back.

We left it at that, and Diane was still happy to see her dream of 20 years become tangible.