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You won't need a ladder for a 20cm scope - it's only 1.2m long. In fact what you will need is that most valuable observing aid, the adjustable observing chair. I have a refractor and like it but overall aperture is king. Get a dobs. Get a big one.
BTW a hidden added cost with the refractor is the focusser. The standard Synta focusser is not ... ah ... particularly useful (not unless you have some papers which are about to blow away). The act of moving the focusser will shake the image so much you'll find it hard to get an exact focus. I almost immediately added an aftermarket motor drive to the focusser which made a huge difference. However after a few years the poor excuse for a tube guide wore out and the image shift became more than unpleasant - it was unusable. So I added a moonlight focusser (worth about the same as the OTA) and it's now beautiful. I can see stars perhaps 0.5 mag fainter than I could with the inferior focussers. You won't have nearly as much problem on a newt because the mounting is more stable.
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