8.03.2021 A door to inner confusion?

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 Monday 8th -6C. A bright start after a hard, white, overnight frost. A chilly 36F in the afternoon but pleasantly warm working in the sunshine.

I really have to sort out the new door arrangements. Since I want a proper step, this time, I could use the present steelwork position for the step itself. With the bottom of the post bolted to the brackets for support. There is no great load involved and it does not support the dome. Otherwise I will have to dig up the block all over again. To excavate a deep hole nearer the shed. Where I hit a rock or stone yesterday. Probably laid there as a foundation for the shed a couple of decades ago.

And so it was. I dug down to find numerous stones up to double house brick size. Moving the block was aided by the narrow, trenching spade. Used as a broad lever as low on the block as I could reach. The post is now perfectly upright in both planes. The image does it no justice since it foreshortens the perspective.  

After lunch I added more cross braces below the octagon's joists. This proved to be the ideal height for 2.4m high, plywood cladding. I also went round clamping and screwing more frames together. This required balancing on the remains of the veranda. A bit unnerving at times. It feels safer on a ladder but very difficult to set one up to any useful effect.

The image [Left, above] shows a mock-up of a door 75cm wide and facing south. The sheet of ply is too tall. So I couldn't tuck it in at the correct position. There was no point in shortening the scrap piece of plywood just for a picture. The extra height might be valuable some day. Having now seen the mock-up I have gone completely off the idea of a south facing door just there.

Any door would be inset below the larger observatory footprint. Though, even now, I could easily "rotate" the door to get more shelter from above. Making it parallel with the wall on which it would be superimposed. Facing roughly SE instead of south makes the most sense. With least conflict between inner and outer posts. While still remaining in clear view from the house.

More like the image at right. I shall have a serious look at this option tomorrow. It provides for a  much neater, wider and far more sheltered entrance. Without any need for complicated roofing over. I can build the door frame into the octagon's SE wall without disturbing the original posts. The curvature of the larger building above will provide a shallow, inset "porch."

Hinged on the right, the door can fold right back against the inside of the eastern [shed side] wall. For minimum obstruction even when wide open. Standing outside the southern door, to open up in wet or windy weather, has always been unpleasant. Even under the shelter of the [dripping] veranda. 

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