Domus project #237: Attic/drying room and closing of the roof

Given that the wooden structure of the roof is practically finished, I might close the attic as well without pulling it too long. It is always a bit sad to close a room knowing that you’ll not see it anymore unless you look through tiny openings, but this is from the beginning a feature of the Domus. However don’t worry, before proceeding to the final closure I will try to take a good number of photos, so we won’t miss it too much!

Meanwhile, it’s time to take care of the interior furnishings, as happened some time ago for the small kitchen. (Un)fortunately in this case the room will be less rich in details and the walls will remain almost bare. Let’s start with a small structural accessory: a wooden staircase. As I already explained, the attic is built on two levels due to the height of the corner room, whose ceiling is about one centimeter above that of the kitchen (half a meter in real size). This difference will be easily overcome through this three small steps, obviously NOT equipped with a railing or any kind of protection, like in the best medieval tradition. As the environment is also poorly lit, we must be careful not to get distracted.

The second accessory is also a staircase, but this time it is a long ladder that will allow the more agile tenants to reach the attic from the kitchen, passing through the open trap door in the slab. I imagine that the old fat servant who takes care of the meals will have to ask the help of some young assistant to go get the salt.

Now let’s move on to the contents of the attic, which will be used to store food, spices and anything else that may be useful for food preparation. I mentioned the salt, so I take this opportunity to make two bags full of this precious merchandise. The raw material for their realization comes from a favor of some forgotten baptism / communion / marriage, which consisted of a small basket with sugared almonds and candies inside (wrapped, in fact, in a square rough cloth) .

I hope that the owners will be pleased to find it when they settle permanently into the Domus. Then, if they want to arrange things in a different way from the one I planned, they will be free to do so, for now I place the bags in a corner (where it will be possible to see them through one of the windows) and I keep working on something else.

- But what is this “something else” you have to work on?

Well, the title of this chapter should give you a good clue, as the attic will also be used as a dryer.

- To dry what?

Certainly not tobacco, at the time it was not present in Europe. Maybe some branch of garlic, onions ... bell peppers? No, there weren’t peppers, either. Maybe just pepper (the spice)...

- Bravo, and how do you make pepper at 1:50 scale? What’s more, are you really sure that in a rainy town like Genoa the attic is the best place to set a dryer?

Hey, how many questions! By the way, who’s talking?- ...In your opinion, what should I put to dry there?- ...

So when you want you keep mute like a ... Holy smoke, now I see! I mean, we’re on the coast, in a town where a large part of the population lives on fishing ... a wealthy family like this will also have the need to put a bit of fish to dry! Maybe stockfish imported from the Atlantic countries?

So let’s do the stockfish! And since we also talked about spices, I’ll take two birds with a ... sage. I have a plant on the balcony that is losing its old leaves ...

I’d say it’s up to the mark, don’t you think? Since the dry grass abounds in the pots, I also add a few sprigs of garlic and we’re done. Now besides being careful of the steps, when you’ll get into the attic you have to stick your nose!

That pole inserted between the walls which already appeared in some older post, is a piece of a stick for skewers painted with a wood enamel. The basket with synthetic grass, instead, is the same as the one hanging from the kitchen window, which I decided it was parsley. What will this be? After all, it doesn’t matter. I just hope it dries quickly.

Well, it seems to me that the attic is ready to put the roof back in place, and this time forever! Let’s take a last look to check if everything is OK.

Perfect. Now I need to paint the roof structure to protect the wood and give it a darker and more uniform color. Once dry, I can finally glue it to the masonry. Attic, bye bye!

I let you see these few more pictures without any further comment. The making of the roof has been described in chapters 235/236 (still not available in English, but you can find the italian version on my blog). Enjoy!

MATERIALS:

wooden planks for modelships, cloth, hemp strands, cotton thread, coarse salt, sage leaf, dry tiny flowers, basket, synthetic grass, skewer stick, vinyl glue, wood enamel

TOOLS:

tweezers, sandpaper, cutter, scissors, ruler, needle, Dremel tool with cutting wheel, awl, clamps

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