slippery steps
- corisalee
- Mar 10, 2017
- 2 min read
When our sub division finally went through we were given permission to have another walk through in our house. It was in March, obviously still winter time. And we couldn't help but notice for the first time that our house was on a slight hill. No one had been maintaining the yard or house the entire winter. *Can we talk about the burst pipes in our crawl space ... maybe another time.* So our walkway up to the door was pretty iffy. And by iffy, I mean you had to lean forward to make sure you made it up to the deck. And if you made it to the deck, good luck walking up the stairs. Can I say NARROW and UNLEVEL! The were covered in ice, and if that isn't the best indicator as to whether they were level or not, than someone please buy me a pocket level to carry with me at all times. (I am a perfectionist by the way. It would be an awesome gift!) Once we moved in, the snow had melted and there were no more worries about ice, but I was not going to let those stairs be used for another winter. And it was even more so justified when my grandma came to visit me. Scratch that. She basically just came to see the house. And have coffee. :) But she had to go around the front of the house to go up our side deck because our front steps were too hard for her to get up. Talk about frustrating! So, I ripped the stairs off and had Mark help me with levelling our ground out. Clay is super hard to level out by the way. And wet clay, even harder. We didn't have any extra gravel laying around, and we were trying to keep the project price down to a minimum, so we just dug and levelled out with shovels as best we could. With extra cement blocks that were literally just laying around, we laid them down as our new steps foundation. Mark was thinking we would have to buy some wrought iron step risers for over $30 a piece, but I am a budgeter, and will not buy anything unless I can get it for C H E A P! We searched around and ending up buy some wood risers (which looked better than the wrought iron in my opinion) from The Home Depot for only $11.78 each, and some 2 x 4's. It was really satisfying being able to finish the steps in one day, and notice such a significant difference. Being able to walk upright while going up a few steps is a big deal people! And being able to carry grocery bags or children up steps without worrying about falling backwards, or getting snagged on those rusty "railings" was/is marvelous. How those other steps were every considered worthy for this previous bed and breakfast was beyond us. But now, we couldn't be happier. Note: We do not have railings up on our steps because we are changing our walkway to the front of the house. We don't want to spend a lot of money on railings that might not fit into the new direction of our walkway. That project coming hopefully this year!
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