A while back I posted about our library, it’s been over year without a ladder, luckily there’s ladders we can borrow from the building and if we need to reach the very top we use BBQ tongs haha! Of course we really want a ladder of our own, but they’re hard to come by and kind of expensive. Every week i’d check on craigslist for library ladders, most were over priced, too short, not in good condition. We found one at an auction a few months ago, but it was way too pricey and really short.
The other week it happened, I saw a post on craigslist for the perfect ladder, 12ft tall, solid oak with a wood hand rail. It was meant to be! The price was even less than half of others we had seen. The only question was, how the heck were we going to get a 12ft ladder in our tiny car?! Well, somehow it worked:
Above is a photo of Andrew, a smile on his face after a few swear words and frustration and the removal of a few metal bars, we got it in the car!
After a somewhat nerve racking drive home, we got to work and by we I mean Andrew. He removed some metal brackets we didn’t want and gave it a wash and then a few coats of oil to bring out it’s colour. This ladder had been sitting in someone’s basement for over a decade, it was really dirty.
As you may have noticed, the wheels slide vertically, not horizontally, but that’s okay in our situation we don’t even want to have it slide so we’re going to figure out how to lock the wheels in place.
Since our library shelves aren’t stable enough to mount a really heavy oak ladder to, we realized we’d have to figure out a different position for it, plus it would block the window anyway. Check out our temporary set up right now, some minor adjustments will be made, but it’s pretty much where we want it to be and we couldn’t be happier!
After some hunting online, we discovered our ladder is very similar to a Putnam Rolling Ladder, specifically their telephone ladder. Check out the specs we found:
I’m dying. This is stunning. Above and beyond Disney’s version 😉
Thanks Tiffany! I still can’t believe this is really in our apartment!
LOVE it!
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I just purchased 4 of these ladders, 3 with side rail. Do you know of anyone who would want to buy them?
Not that I know of, I bought ours on craigslist, maybe try that? Good luck.
How is the ladder stabilized so that you can climb it?
It leans against the ledge above and the wheels are locked in place. It is very stable. We don’t really climb it often. The cabinet behind it also holds it in place.