That loft ladder

Just in case anyone out there in blogland is still eagerly waiting for a conclusion, I can now provide a report on the state of the loft ladder automation project. It’s not all that satisfying though. Basically the need for a top-closing loft hatch has now gone, with the departure of the house of luuurve from our house, and while it existed it was adequately met by the single-string manual hatch closer with bungey-powered bottom flap assistance described earlier. The main stumbling blocks to automating the whole thing were:
- Surprisingly large forces required to start the lifting process (conical capstans maybe?)
- The need to lift from very different places at different angles of descent/ascent (microprocessor control, perhaps?)
- Nowhere to to hide the machinery - motors, capstans etc (hmmm...)
- Far too many other things going on to think about it
- The necessity to have everything working every night
- The lovely Jackie saying there wasn’t any point in automation, as she could always get me to do it manually.
The last was the real killer of course, being so disarmingly true. But I’m still harbouring a tiny glimmer of hope that one day I’ll have nothing better to do than have a proper go at this. Surely mere practicality shouldn’t thwart the creativity of an absurdly overcomplicated project forever?