Paint the stairs

My mother is planning to visit! That's exciting. But it also means I have stuff to do. She loves gardens and gardening, and I have a huge and lovely garden, so we both expect her to be in there quite a lot. But my mother isn't overly stable on her feet, and my garden is below the house. To be accessed via stairs that are wood for the top half and slate for the bottom half. When it rains, both wood and slate get very slippery. And only the wood bit has a railing! So I needed to sort something out.

I had put anti-slip tape on the wood quite early on, but that's a bit of a temporary measure. Phil had suggested stretched metal meshing. And the local DIY shop sold that! I admit that means I was tackling the easiest problem first, but well, one has to start somewhere. I took the old tape off. But the stairs looked like they needed some paint. And that should then be done first! So I got a pot of wood paint Rose had left me out of the garage and set to work. And at the end I had a beautifully brown set of stairs! And then I can apply my first metal mesh and see how that goes. But the good thing is too that when you paint stairs, you look at them, and that has given me ideas for the big issue: putting up railings for the lower part of the stairs. That's the big work! And it should be thought through before starting.

There is a chance it won't rain while my mother is here, and only when they're wet are the stairs slippery, but well, I use them when they're wet! So maybe I so far have only pleased myself. But watch this space. That railing will materialise!

 

The state of the wood beforehand

And afterwards!