Taking Steps to Avoid – or Embrace – Steps
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Bill Primavera
I can’t remember the last time I climbed a flight of stairs.
For the past five years, I’ve been happily ensconced in a one-level home at Trump Park and, yes, I probably haven’t climbed a flight of stairs during all that time. My generous waistline would attest to that.
Prior to that I was climbing and descending stairs all the time, living in an 18th century home where every day I would climb two flights from my home office to the attic for supplies or down to the basement to attend to a temperamental boiler and water heater.
Some people seek to avoid stairs in their housing choices, especially older citizens, preferring one-level living, while others insist on having sleeping quarters on a second level. The reasons for either preference can be quite different.
When I was very young, maybe five or six years old, I had a recurring dream of tumbling down an endless flight of steps, but they were of a rubbery consistency and I just bounced like a ball the entire way. Maybe my subconscious had absorbed the story my mother had told me about how as a toddler I miraculously survived a fall down the steps to a concrete basement floor.
The experience never dampened my enthusiasm for a beautiful staircase from the time I discovered that I could enjoy a bumpy ride down the bare wooden steps from our second floor.
When we moved from a two-story row home in Philadelphia to a ranch-style home in the South, I remember, even as an eight-year-old, that it seemed strange that when it came time to climb to my weary trundle bed, there were no steps to climb. It just didn’t feel right that I was sleeping on the same floor where I ate and played. From my experience in real estate, I’ve found that many people feel the same way.
Let’s face it, steps are a necessity in most housing situations. While it may be easier to build a one-story house, it makes more sense economically to have two stories rise above one foundation and tucked in under one roof. Then, there is the argument for the raised ranch, which is basically two stories using a split staircase. The split-level also involves steps, but not in one long run.
While early in my real estate career, I thought that only senior homebuyers would have a preference for avoiding steps, I found many young buyers with the same avoidance issue because they had young children and were afraid either of children falling or being too far removed if the master bedroom was on the first floor.
For older buyers who prefer homes without steps, many have mobility issues. The need for level floors is inarguable. But assuming one must live with stairs, is there any benefit to having them?
A set of stairs in the middle of the home might be an annoyance for people who aren’t used to them, but I have lived with them for most of my life. There were times in New York City when I have lived in four- and five-floor walk-ups. In the country, I’ve lived in a two-story home with laundry and storage in the basement. I’ve looked at the stairs as part of my exercise routine. In fact, the workout that comes from regular stair climbing may help to keep us young.
As a case in point, I think of my mother-in-law. My wife was initially relieved when her parents, upon retiring to Hyannis, Mass., selected a single-story bungalow to live in. Her relief turned to irritation, however, on the first visit. The house was indeed a single story – with a basement. This dim lower level was deeper than the first story of the house was high, with a steep set of rough-sawn wooden steps leading straight down into it. My petite mother-in-law flew up and down those stairs several times a day.
With every visit my wife would try to firmly make some suggestion to her mother that she not use the basement so often. But then she would run off again, carrying down laundry, bringing up line-dried linens, putting food into storage or bringing up the good dishes for the many parties she hosted. It drove my wife crazy, but her mother lived to be nearly 92, and she was able to keep using the stairs until her last few years.
Even without the involuntary exercise stairs give us, they also benefit homeowners in other ways, whether by helping shape the design of a home or a patio into a hilly property, offering a means to build on a smaller parcel of land or helping keep the bedrooms away from the sounds – and kitchen smells – of the first floor.
There is a George Gershwin song called “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise.” Notice that he didn’t say he’d get there by just strolling across to it on the same level or taking an elevator.
Bill Primavera is a realtor associated with William Raveis Real Estate and founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com). To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
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