The staircase and stilettos

This is looking down the staircase in our little apartment that leads from the main floor down to the bedroom and bath. It is narrow, steep, and the treads are about 2" shorter than they should be so one must turn their foot a bit sideways to walk down them. The black rectangle you see at the bottom is the built-in doormat. Isn't that clever? The tile is actually cut out to accommodate this little doormat.

Anyway, after going up and down this narrow, steep, short-treaded staircase, I decided my house hunt criteria would include finding a place with 1) no stairs or 2) safer stairs. Turns out every place I've looked at has either 1) similar stairs or 2) more unsafe stairs. I'm not giving up yet. Still looking for that elusive single-level house.

Some of you may remember my tumble down the brick steps at my neighbor's house in Jefferson. One witness even called it graceful . . . . for a tumble down brick steps. Since that time, I've sworn off wearing heels of any kind. I used to pride myself on being able to maneuver just about any situation in heels, but not after that. And if I hadn't sworn off heels before this move, it would certainly be prudent now.

This picture is of the downtown streets of Hasselt. Notice they are cobblestone. This particular street has nice sidewalks, but some are just cobblestone all the way across. Just walking on them in ordinary shoes can be a challenge. You should see some of the women I've seen walking briskly in high heels on these stones! I mean every foot length is a potential heel-loser in one of the millions of cracks! I've nearly turned my ankle on the little indention between the sidewalk and the bike lane! Fortunately, there are sidewalks of square bricks with millions of cracks, but at least they are flat.