While the house was under construction, the cell phone reception was poor in this area. Hubby had a device that improved reception, that he wanted to test out for a client. He put it on the roof of the house. He then took his cell phone and was walking though the house, checking the reception. There was no electricity installed, so it was dark in the house. He was making his way through the house, never looking up. He walked through the kitchen, turned right, and was planning to walk down the hall to the master bedroom. All of a sudden, he was falling. He thought, Why am I falling? Is there a hole in the floor in the hallway? A few minutes later, he realized he was in the basement laying on the cement floor. In the dark, he cautiously feels around the floor, hoping to find his phone. He did find it, but it was in pieces.
The hallway and the basement stairs are right beside each other. The door to the basement stairs was off. Instead of walking down the hall, he walked in the basement stairway and immediately fell. Thank the Lord he didn’t have any broken bones. If you look at the basement stairs, it has a stone wall. I don’t know how he made it without killing himself. He only ended up with some black and blue bruises.
He asked me the other day, while I was watching a movie. “I’m getting concerned with you watching all those murder mystery movies. Are you planning something?”
“No! I respond. “I don’t have to, you do a nice job trying yourself.”
We wanted to keep the old staircase, but it had five missing spindles. We thought we could have someone make new ones, but how would we make it look like the rest.
We did not want to refinish it all. So I don’t remember whose idea it was, but we went to the antique row in Cleveland. Hubby and I started at the first store and asked about spindles. Being disappointed with many attempts, we almost gave up hope. Then at one store, we asked the owner. He said, “I might have some, but you’ll have to hunt. Go down the back stairs. Go way in the back to the right corner. Check there.”
That was an exhilarating experience of trash hunting, in a creepy old basement. Hubby finally found an area that had spindles. After examining, seemed like hundreds, he found some that were the same. The thing was now we had to find ones that had the right length. We needed three different lengths. We were so happy when we found exactly everything we needed. We didn’t even have to refinish them, because they had the same color and finish.
We repainted the beautiful design white and the steps a deep burgundy. It might look easy to paint, but I couldn’t get the burgundy steps and the white designs to my satisfaction. So I hired an artist friend to do the final touch. We did not refinish the staircase and I think it looks great. I love the old aged staircase that shows signs of a well-worn family home.
The upstairs landing is supposed to be the quiet area for reading, or for our guests, to relax and watch TV. It is also a place where we found our grandchildren escaping and watching their favorite show. Now the TV is gone, but it’s still a favorite quiet place.