As we age in place it’s nice to make safety improvements. While we don’t run up the steps to the various tiers in our backyard all the time, it is nice to have safer steps with handrails when we do for various reasons, including “hillside” gardening. Shando put this together for us. My original plan was to build a platform that was safe to climb on top of the deck in our lookout area, but even when we brought it to the lookout and walked up all the way, our own roof obstructed most of the water view of the Carquinez Strait. So much for that theory.

I was going to order a shorter set of stairs for the bottom tier of the garden with one handrail, but after we tested it out, this one fit very well, and the steps are gradual, like the staircase that came with the house up to the lookout. In the end, it was meant to be, and it matches the other decor of the backyard well, as far as I’m concerned. These steps now make the path “around” the bamboo much more practical for humans.