When we bought the cabin, the original owner had other plans, to just have a spiral staircase up to two bedrooms. I floored that space to make a continual loft that includes a bath. This led to building the upstairs landing for access to the bedrooms and the bath in the center. The landing is currently supported by columns from the bottom; I can work around them, but it has been suggested by another contractor that before we wall in (using them as corners) and by necessity creating a little corner nook, that we remove the columns and support the corner of the loft with a support from the ceiling joists. I was inclined to just go with what we have, and create a small closet with the nook the columns create, but am thinking that support from the ceiling would open up the great room a bit more. I also worry about insufficient support...I know the ceiling can support the weight, but being a cabin on piers I wonder if we should keep the support from the bottom to insure the cabin won't lean forward with time. I know this sounds iffy, but I have seen too many cabins with porches slope forward because of support issues and I don't want to deal with this later if I can deal with it now. The original contractor is sure that won't happen, because of cross supports to the exterior, but I'm afraid adding weight to the ceiling would counter that. Any experience with this type of thing? We bought this framed up and exterior finished, but adding the bath and stairs have changed the plans and I so do not want to redo anything later.