Once upon a time, after finishing a nice dinner, a couple bottles of wine, some beer, vodka and gin someone said “John don’t you have a bench to move.” The referenced bench was the 8′ long Nicholson English bench built by Christopher Schwarz and made from Southern Yellow Pine. My shop is in the basement which lies on the other side of a tight turn at the bottom of the steps.
Earlier in the evening I had taken out a tape and measured the space. It seemed to me that there was a “9 foot space” that would allow the 8 foot bench to clear the wall. So we put down our glass, picked up the bench, two in front and two at the other end, and proceeded down the stairs. As we moved closer to the “9 foot space” it got tight, well ok, it got stuck. Being that we all were feeling quite optimistic from the wine, we naturally pushed forward until I heard a noise and Chris say “there goes your wall.” Undeterred we pulled back, shifted the bottom up a bit and pushed again. Yes, another sound and another “there goes your wall.” After another number of minutes and another sound I looked up to see my wife laughing hard and holding the video camera. As the concerned and helpful wife that she is, she saw the train wreck before it happened and decided to film it. I wonder if I should search Youtube….
Anyway, I did get the bench to the basement and decided to rip out the offending wall! There must be a moral to this story but I am not sure what it is. Maybe it is build a bench that can be taken apart?
Ah Yes!
You got "hypotenooted" making the turn (grinnnnnn)
happens to most of us sooner or later.
I once took a sofa down stairs and got it down without a problem, but when we moved, it would NOT come up! Took a circular saw to it and took it out in pieces (grin)
you will enjoy the open space by the stairs, and your wife will enjoy telling the tale for years!
BTW, how is the bench?
Mike
My solution has been to make a 6′ long bench that is a tad narrower than Chris’. Theoretically, at least, it should fit through just about any door if you stand it on end.
Of course there IS the minor detail of making do with a shorter bench…, but at least I can put it where I need to do the work.
This is so hilarious!
Good thing my Nicholson can knocked down (thanks Adam)
Guys,
The bench made out of SYP is fine and stood up well to drywall. One of our projects is to organize all our video and pictures so at some point I will be able to post the video of it being stuck.
I really wanted to make sure that the bench would come out of the basement because it needs to go with me if I move. At some point I will do a blog on using the Nicholson bench.
Regards
JH