20210526 Handrails

The stairs in our house go straight up and then make a turn to the right with the last three steps. There is a handrail all the way up on the left, but when you come to the last couple of steps that turn right, there is no handrail anymore, just a short empty wall. There used to be a short handrail there, but the screws came loose and then I had to disassemble the handrail before it came off from the wall by itself. The problem was that the wall is made from cheap plaster blocks. I tried to fix the handrail, but the plugs wouldn't hold. I even bought special plugs that were supposed to be better for these type of walls, but they fell out too. So I decided to fill the holes and paint the wall so that the wall looks nice again, but the consequences are that there is no handrail anymore on those last few steps. And that is a little bit annoying to all of us. For me it felt like failure, but then again, I never pretended to be a handyman. Now, when I descend the stairs, I grab the wall on the other side of the stairs to keep me safe, but I'm always reminded of the missing handrail. Not in the last place because grabbing the wall on the other side has left all kinds of stains on the white wall because of dirty hands. I've had to paint that piece of wall twice in the last couple of years.

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