I’m celebrating today with my tea and a double chocolate chip cookie. The reason is that I now have two bannisters going down my steep thirteen stairs to the garage.(I know you must be thinking I’m losing it when I’m excited over bannisters.) Our indispensable hammer-nail-paint man was here off and on all week. The problem was what color to paint the railings as one had been here all along and the new one’s wood had a different grain. Staining did not do the trick. Finally we decided to just paint them the color of the wall, and voila, that was the solution. It even made the staircase look wider.

We almost didn’t buy our house because the stairs looked a bit scary. They are quite steep. We also have extremely wide, brick steps that go up to the front of our house. I think they’re dramatic. Two female real estate people came here once to see about selling our house, and they said, “Houses with steps are really hard to sell.” Then they proceeded to underestimate the value of the house. I researched their assertion and then I laughed. How many two story houses are sold in this country? A zillion!

Staircases can certainly be dramatic or at least invite scenes of drama. How about the staircase in “Gone With The Wind”? Old movies used them a lot to show off the actor, especially a beautiful woman or women. Remember the Zeigfeld Follies? The stunning women always came on stage down steep, wide steps.

People love to climb the steps of the Pyramids. Thousands climb the narrow, winding steps inside the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, including me. However, I nearly fainted halfway up from claustrophobia. Of course, that climb was not done because of the climb, but because of the spectacular view, from which I almost fainted from acrophobia. (So, I need a shrink.)

Wanting to climb is pretty much built into our DNA, or at least it seems that way because you know that kids love to climb on everything. No little kid can walk along on a sidewalk if there is a wall running along side. They must walk on the wall.

I’ve never figured out why people want to scale the face of a mountain, unless it is just what some people say, “because it’s there.” It can’t be always for the view as many times the top of a mountain is closed in by clouds or fog.

By the way, we put our house on the market, just before the big financial crisis, with a male broker. One of the women, who said it was hard to show the house because of the stairs, showed our house to a client. Think she wanted us to reduce the asking price when she had come for the listing? You don’t say such a thing to someone who had been a real estate broker in Los Angeles for seven years. Me.

So, step right up and tell me some good real estate, bannister or steps stories with the comment button below. Love to hear from you.

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