NORTH OGDEN -- Call it the door to nowhere.
A house in the rear of the lot at 2089 N. 400 East has a second-story entryway. A lovely wrought-iron staircase also leads to that second story. But the stairs terminate a few feet shy of the portal, against a solid wall.
An extension ladder accesses the door instead.
The owner of the property goes by the handle Red Dog. He is a semiretired gent who is a musician/producer/engineer and an antique car restorer. Red Dog said the seeming mystery is part of a project-in-progress that he has been working on for roughly five years. There are no internal stairs up to the second floor -- thus the ladder. As for the wrought-iron staircase, a friend scared it up cheap in Boise, Idaho.
"(The staircase) laid in the yard here four or five years because I was debating how I wanted to use them," Red Dog said. "If I put those stairs up the way they are designed, they would have stuck out into my driveway. And since I rebuild antique cars, I did not want those stairs sticking out there, interfering with that work space."
Red Dog has a two-story addition planned for the front house, with an exterior wall already partially built. He will add the staircase to that addition once it is complete.
"That way, I can use them without major modification. I will put a deck between the two. And then when you will walk up those stairs, you'll be able to go into this building, or that one."
For now, the exterior ladder works dandy, said Red Dog.
He laughed. "People are sometimes a little worried when I invite them to climb on up, but really, it's pretty safe. I haven't lost anyone yet."
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