POBphotocontest ~ STAIRS

Just by coincidence, this week's theme for the #POBphotocontests happened to be stairs, and I just happened to be working on the front stairs and the landing that the stairs rest on.

Over the past month, two family members took a spill while using the front stairs. My eldest son took a flop as he stepped onto the landing and my daughter-in-law took a flop while going down the stairs. They're a lot younger than me and they both popped up, no injuries but just a little embarrassed. If I had fallen I may still be lying there. We get a lot of rain here and the stairs do get a little slippery, which I'm well aware of.

I addressed this dangerous situation as I have in the past, using these skid guards made by 3M is the answer. They are a little pricy but not as costly as a broken something would be.

Installing them took longer than usual due to the cold temps. In the past, I have done this job in the summer. First I needed to sand the stairs and then apply the stair guard. Wanting to make sure they adhered to the wood I thought that if I heated up the sticky side of the guard, it would stick much better. I borrowed @farm-mom's hairdryer and it worked like a charm.

If you slip now, maybe you have had too much to drink.

When I built our home I wanted to be able to exit the house from several locations.

My thinking was why should I have to go out a door and walk around the home to get to where I wanted to be? With that in mind, I constructed our home with seven exterior doors and nine sets of stairs. One of the staircases has but one stair tread while another set of stairs has thirteen stair treads. Over the past few years, I have used the 3M stair guards on almost every tread.

These stairs lead to a bedroom on the second floor.

This room is only used when we have company. Forget about ever using it in the winter as snow piles up on the deck making it impossible to even open the door. I hope to address this staircase next year and make it as safe to use as the other stairs.