Simple Pleasures

I take great pleasure from simple things. Like a solid set of stairs. I’m not talking about elegant, spiral stairs or ornate steps lined by a banister of fancy turned posts. I’m talking about a basic, yet solid, extremely practical, set of stairs. In this case, they lead to our basement, a place which, by the way, I don’t take great pleasure from. The joists that support our floors are just a little too low. When I’m there, I have to walk slightly hunched over or risk getting a face full of cobwebs. The basement stairs are a very small piece of a breezeway makeover that has been underway at our house for the past month.

The project started when we decided to have our back stairs (to the mudroom) rebuilt to offer something a little more standard in terms of the tread and the amount of rise for each step so there would be less chance of one of us or a hapless guest doing a header as they leave our house. There was also an awkward corner where you navigated past a railing into the swing of the storm door which was always trying to close too fast on you, especially if you were carrying something. After the old stairs were removed, we started to get a more thorough handle on some existing problems. The wall on one side of the breezeway was resting on….well, nothing really. The old wooden sill had rotted out and you could see daylight from outside.

Then there was the basement stairwell constructed some unknown number of decades ago from stacked up cinder blocks. Over time, the sandy soil had been leaking out from between the blocks, and they were slowly caving in. The width of the old cellar stairs was just enough for me to fit through, so doing things like getting a new furnace or hot water heater were complicated at best.

After a little consulting with a concrete contractor, we decided to go all in. Create a new foundation for the one wall currently supported by faith, build a proper stairwell down to the basement, and pour a whole new slab because most of the old, cobbled together mess would be dug out to make room for the concrete forms. After a flurry of activity spanning a couple of weeks, all the excavating and concrete work was complete. The next step was for our carpenter to build new stairs to the basement and the back door and to rebuild the wall and doorway to our back yard.

Our carpenter, Mike, came the other day to build the basement stairs. We had agreed on a design that would be sturdy, but nothing elaborate. Just four steps with a wide enough tread and a rise that won’t be too much as we age in place in our big old house. Mike showed up mid-morning and set up his saw in the driveway. He had built the stringers (I’m learning stair lingo quite thoroughly) at home. Those are the zigzag shaped supporting members underneath the stairs. I heard him outside working on the assembly. Turning the raw lumber into a new form with a specific function. I don’t like to stand over him while he is working so I busied myself with my own chores until later in the day.

When I finally went out, he was attaching the treads. He squeezed out a bead of adhesive along the surface of the stringer under the tread. “I don’t like creaky steps,” Mike explained, and I gave him a thumbs up as he set the tread in place to screw it down. We were heading out on a bike ride, and he finished his work while we were gone.

I had to try out the stairs when we came back. I knew the dehumidifier would be full, so I went down the new stairs, enjoying the solid feel under each step. I noticed the little details, such as the tiny notches in the treads so that they fit perfectly against the face of the new concrete walls. I truly appreciated the way each step was evenly spaced and wide enough so I didn’t feel like I was taking my life in my hands just to go down a few steps.

This particular set of stairs has evolved since we bought the house 30 years ago. At that time, the stairs consisted of some old wooden planks sitting on top of uneven brick and loose sand. After one near disaster where the bottom step slipped out underfoot, sending me into a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairwell, I determined to make some new steps. I calculated them out and made them with my passable carpentry skills. They were a huge improvement, but still a bit narrow and steep. Now, the stairs have been taken to a whole new level. The stairwell has almost doubled in width. Everything is at right angles and faced with smooth concrete instead of crumbling cinder blocks covered in sand and moldy leaves.

You don’t appreciate the simple beauty of something like a set of steps until you have them and realize what you put up with for so long. I don’t need a fancy McMansion with elaborate woodwork and twisting ballroom stairs. Give me a nice, solid set of stairs that will last the rest of my lifetime. I think I need to go check on that dehumidifier again.