1 day down, ? to go!
My house only has one staircase.
Now, I understand this is normal for the vast majority of people. But for the last 108 years (yes, 108 YEARS), our house has had two staircases: one in the middle and one in the back. And now the one in the middle is gone. And it feels....good.
I add the "...." because we gave this decision a lot of thought. When you buy a 108 year old house, you don't do it to rip stuff out. You do it to preserve and restore your little bit of history. So when we realized that, to make this house functional for a modern family, it had to loose something original, it pained my heart a bit. Well, a lot. I hemmed and hawwed and second guessed myself for months. But here's why it was the right thing to do:
1. We do not need 2 staircases. We don't have slaves, which was the intent of the back staircase originally, and I don't see us getting any in the future :) Now my "white guilt" has kicked in, so I'm done mentioning slaves in this post.
2. The middle staircase wasn't in good shape. The newel post had been chopped in half, the treads were mismatched and ugly. It was dark. Overall, not cute. Actually, when we first toured the house, it was going up that staircase that I first thought, "Ooh, this is gonna be a lot of work"
3. We desperately need a half bath downstairs and more storage upstairs. Losing the staircase will provide both.
You know how if you say something enough times, eventually you'll believe it? Maybe that's what I'm doing here. But probably not. Because today, when I walked into my future "bathroom/closet" for the first time, I felt really excited. Not sad. Change is hard- I'm Presbyterian, so I know this. :)
The staircase, the first day we looked at the house:
And today (not the best picture- this is from inside the new bathroom, looking up)
Now, I understand this is normal for the vast majority of people. But for the last 108 years (yes, 108 YEARS), our house has had two staircases: one in the middle and one in the back. And now the one in the middle is gone. And it feels....good.
I add the "...." because we gave this decision a lot of thought. When you buy a 108 year old house, you don't do it to rip stuff out. You do it to preserve and restore your little bit of history. So when we realized that, to make this house functional for a modern family, it had to loose something original, it pained my heart a bit. Well, a lot. I hemmed and hawwed and second guessed myself for months. But here's why it was the right thing to do:
1. We do not need 2 staircases. We don't have slaves, which was the intent of the back staircase originally, and I don't see us getting any in the future :) Now my "white guilt" has kicked in, so I'm done mentioning slaves in this post.
2. The middle staircase wasn't in good shape. The newel post had been chopped in half, the treads were mismatched and ugly. It was dark. Overall, not cute. Actually, when we first toured the house, it was going up that staircase that I first thought, "Ooh, this is gonna be a lot of work"
3. We desperately need a half bath downstairs and more storage upstairs. Losing the staircase will provide both.
You know how if you say something enough times, eventually you'll believe it? Maybe that's what I'm doing here. But probably not. Because today, when I walked into my future "bathroom/closet" for the first time, I felt really excited. Not sad. Change is hard- I'm Presbyterian, so I know this. :)
The staircase, the first day we looked at the house:
And today (not the best picture- this is from inside the new bathroom, looking up)
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