A New Step

One of the side benefits of the new battery bank (see Racing to the Summer Solstice) is a new step for the front door.

porch step

The new porch step. Simple, elegant, sturdy. If I do say so myself (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

Since we bought the homestead 13 years ago, we have depended on a moveable front step to deliver us safely from the threshold to the floor of the porch, and vice-versa. In those years, we’ve dealt with the danger of stepping off either side of the step, and with various “visitors” to the homestead hiding beneath it; mostly voles and mice, but more than once, a pine marten (see Pandemonium on the Porch).

When I set up the new battery bank, I ran wires across the threshold, which displaced the old step. I mentioned to Michelle that I might need to make a new step for the porch, and she rattled off a list of improvements. I incorporated them all in the new design.

old step overlaid on new step.

The old porch step, which we covered with a coconut fiber mat, over the new porch step (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).

Most importantly, I extended it across the length of the door, plus a bit. This prevents us from stepping off the side of the step by accident. I don’t think anyone has ever done that, but we’ve certainly come close in the past. Now, there’s little or no danger of that. Every step out the door feels solid, clean, and confident. I love it, and I think my wife and daughter do, too!

Now, I do have one further tweak planned for this step. We have long used a product called DridekĀ®. I may add a layer of that, in lieu of a mat, which won’t fit on the new step.

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