The horizontal boards form a V. At the crook of the V are pulleys,
some vertical boards, and mooring bits at the ends of the boards. The
horizontal boards are about 9 feet up. The bottoms of the vertical
boards are 6 ½ feet (2 meters) above the ground.
The bottoms of the vertical boards are higher than Bob's head, but the mooring bits are easily within reach of his arms. Bill thought of the mooring bits, and a good idea it was, too. The two ropes come down together, and at a good distance from the wall. When Bob raises or lowers the box, he faces the box with the ropes coming down together in front of him. There is enough rope to lower the box to the floor. Due to multiple pulleys at the suspension, that requires over 3x as much rope as the distance from the ground to the horizontal V.
The pulleys are too high so the rope rubs against the beams in the garage roof. This was a mistake. However, when the rope is under tension, this greatly reduces the pull needed to keep the ropes from moving. That helps a lot when Bob has to fasten or unfasten the two ropes singlehandedly.