They don't make things like they used to

“There’s a problem,” Rick said.

He’d been in “The Nest.”

I followed him the two doors down from where we were renting a flat to the building where my 3rd floor (European, 4th floor American--why can't everyone count the same?) studio was.

I looked.

The fifth stair had a gaping hole.

My Nest is adorable, but the hallway is not. The stairs at best are ugly. One of the reasons I had Chris Floyd paint a mural of the café around the corner in the entry was to make the place better looking.

 We later learned that the new tenant on the 1st floor had put her leg through the stair.

The building is about 400 years old. At one time local farmers lived there and kept live stock on the ground floor. The stairs are about half of that and hadn’t been redone when the building was converted into four apartments 27 years ago, which was when I bought The Nest.

We called Gigi our rare (because he's reliable) French worker who does everything: electricity, carpentry, plumbing, tile and even rebuilt the original stone wall in my place--all to perfection.

He shook his head as he pulled out a piece of wood that once would have been a support for the tile. It was almost wet.

Because of all the underground water all houses have ground floor humidity problems. Gigi had already applied a humidity-protector to the entry before he retiled it because paint would never stay on the walls.

It took him a while to find a solution. Later this week he’ll do a temporary repair. Then he’ll rebuild the first five stairs ASAP. Stair six on up are supported by an ancient brick wall. When he has a break in his work load, he’ll reinforce and do what he can to make the stairway look better.

Okay, the stair only lasted 200 or so years. They just don’t make things like they used to.