The first weekend after the scaffolding went up, Kathy and I tried climbing on it. After all, how often do you get to climb on someone else's scaffolding? Besides, there were some little bits of hardware we wanted to remove before they got in the painters' way, and the weekend was the ideal time to get up there and get it done.
There are four levels to the scaffolding; it doesn't quite match the floors on the house. The first level is only about 3 feet above ground level, which is even with the "grade level" of the first floor. (The house stands on a low pedestal, because it's on a hill.) The second level is about 8 feet above the first, and so on. The uppermost level of scaffolding is about even with the top-floor ceiling so they can reach the gables and roof. From inside the house, the top level looks like a roof or shelter. Nope -- they guys walk on that. Yikes.
Anyway, we wanted to give it a try.We got as far as the second level and said, "Yeah, okay, that was fun. Let's go back down now."
Scaffolding bounces. A lot. It's like standing on a diving board, minus the water. The ironwork that holds the scaffolding together seems solid enough, but the 2x6 boards that you walk on are just, well, 2x6 boards. They lie flat across the gaps with nothing really to hold them together or keep them in place. You want to be careful not to dislodge a board with your toe because it'll just fall straight down. It's a life-sized game of Jenga.
The purpose of this exercise was to take down the house numbers and also to reconnoiter a little mystery. One of the painters said he'd found a secret Masonic symbol painted on the front of the house, so we climbed up to go find it. Sadly, it was just a little fleur-de-lis for decoration, not a secret symbol, so we were a bit disappointed. But hey, I can see my house from here!
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