Funny. lol

Love it! :-D

Where is Jakabedy when we need her?

Giggling here, too!

When my sister was in kindergarten, a "taxi" service picked up groups of four kids and transported them to and from school. (I took the same service a bit later).

One day the door flew open and a girl fell out and when the kids tried to tell the driver, he told them to be quiet. When he got to her house and Wendy was gone, they drove back and she was sitting along side the road. Her arm was broken, and her parents blamed her, saying she must have been fooling around and opened the door.

Same with my neighbor who fell off the tower diving board at the local pool and broke his collarbone. His parents grounded him because they side if he hadn't been goofing off thre was no way he could have fallen off the part of the board over the concrete.

Times have changed.

Kids? You wouldn't catch me in some of those houses without a carabiner.

Our dd grew up in our MCM house. You can stumble off the deck (sans rails), bounce down a fifty foot ravine and land in the boulder filled creek. Dd never had a scratch due to architecture but dh, an icy night and our old dog are another story ....

That tickled my funny bone bronwynsmom. Thank you. Very helpful on a Monday morning!

I would have to limit my drinking to less than 1 glass of wine per night if I lived in those abodes! Very funny article!

I love it. We have at least two of those 'drawbridge over a moat' houses in my town--I've seen them crop up when I am trolling the real estate websites and wondered how much hassle it would be to just move the furniture in, let alone live there.

I was born in the 60's and those floating stairs without rails were one of my primary childhood fears. I remember being walked up them in tears, holding mom's hand, as she assured me I would not plunge to my death. When I was in college, I refused to live in an apartment I otherwise wanted because the stairs to the second level had no risers. Even at adult size, I could only picture myself slipping between the steps to my doom!

This is so funny, and love some of the comments on the blog. :-D

My fiance has been rock climbing for over 20 yrs, I'm not showing him this, he'll get ideas. :-D

Those are wicked hazards! I can't see what's funny about it, more less hysterical, but whatever. Those stairs are dangerous for adults too, even without one too many martinis.

Not too young, not too old to live there. Beautiful houses though.

You still see houses with these floating treads and no railings in magazines, as new construction or new renovation and I wonder what code compliance is overall for the whole project (although a lot of these type things seem to be in Europe or Asia). The 4" sphere often cited is for commercial spaces, but has been adapted by many locales for residential.

I wonder if some of those that have at least some rail post with wide openings actually have plexiglas or glass inserts?

You still see houses with these floating treads and no railings in magazines, as new construction or new renovation and I wonder what code compliance is overall for the whole project (although a lot of these type things seem to be in Europe or Asia). The 4" sphere often cited is for commercial spaces, but has been adapted by many locales for residential.

I wonder if some of those that have at least some rail post with wide openings actually have plexiglas or glass inserts?

There is a reason they call it Brutalism.

Pal, don't get technical here.

Despite the fact that there's no physical risk, I can't go up the stairs in the main Apple store in Boston.

This post was edited by marcolo on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 0:11

I thought I was the only one with an irrational fear of stairs without risers.

I didn't like mine so much because your foot can overreach and you either bark your shins or catch your toe the next time you lift your foot. The riser keeps your foot in the right place.

The MCM thing that is most dangerous for adults at least incidence-wise is the one or two step up or down sunken living room or level change, one step, especially. That and the roman tub with steps around it. We've mostly moved away from the wide open things above, but people still seem to like subtle level changes and bathtubs that are hard to get in and out of.

I have that one step level change into the master bedroom, powder bath and living room, as well as outside from the porch to the courtyard. I cannot tell you how many people have fallen off, not realizing the step was there. It's a terrible design.

One of my most dangerous treks as an appraiser was up a 40-year-old metal spiral staircase. It was so unstable I literally hung myself off the central pole the whole way.

But for danger, one doesn't have to leave this era: Stone floors for babies and small children who'll fall literally hundreds of times before they're ready to run outside by themselves.

Amazing that the Brady Bunch kids ever survived in that mid-century modern house of theirs, especially the floating staircase.

Speaking of kids on ledges:

Sorry, I didn't realize that renowned kiddie porn site ObamaPacman was claiming ownership of a pic it stole from Apple.

Anyway, picture yourself teetering down something like this after a beer or two:

Heck, the kids would have to fend for themselves! We'd be breaking out the carabiners, ropes and climbing shoes b4 the movers even got the truck door open!

Great post, thanks bronwynsmom! Very funny. I have a sunken living room, two steps. No one has fallen yet. When we moved in I told my kids to mind the steps. Seems to have worked. Obviously it could be an issue for aging in place though.

Many years ago I was walking with a (Russian) boyfriend in St. Petersburg. We came across this huge hole (like 6 or 7' deep) in the sidewalk. It had been there for months and months. Being a good Canadian safety cautious girl I expressed outraged and laid out my grave concern for the children of St. Petersburg given this frightful danger. He just tilted his head, and said "Russian kids would just walk around the hole." Made me laugh.

Two regular steps is a perceptible level change and we can "sense" it even if we aren't looking, usually. It is the single step or shallow level changes that are the problem.

That is true Pal. I also have a railing (of sorts) separating the raised DR from the sunken LR. It probably provides another visual clue of the level change.

I got several chuckles out of this having grown up in a MCM home. I do remember walking on a couple of low roofs.

Sent it to my architect son, an overactive Houdini who managed by the age of three to: age one-escape from the house and crawl down a gravel drive way and into the road age 2- break one arm climbing over a 5 ft railing and falling over a retaining wall, and age 3- break the other arm falling off of a (one) step stool on to a carpeted floor. Please note: none of these were under my watch! He was with grandma or dad who are responsible people. Can you imagine what he could have done in some of these homes??

He never had another MAJOR calamity although,as the mother of 3 boys, I did get to know the E.R. staff. As an adult he has 'fessed up to a few other childhood "adventures". Isn't it great that our parents didn't always know what we were up to and that we don't find out some of the stuff our kids did until they are long out of the house?

He lives in his own wonderful MCM now and amazes all who knew him as a child with how mellow he is!

Picture a red arrow showing a kid's trajectory down the stairs, off the platform and down the waterfall.

Reminds me of the first line in Edward Gorey's "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs.

Totally off topic but I think it is pretty fascinating that the stone floor in the Fallingwater LR has the texture of that stream.

At least the hatch to this plunge pool is a rather complex opening with both hinged and sliding panels, so it would be difficult for a child to open, I think. It's not a child friendly house--but the elder Kaufmanns didn't like it much either it's not "friendly" in a number of ways. I think their son liked it a lot.

Yes, Pal, you're right - the Kaufman's parti said, do whatever you want, just so long as we keep the lovely view of the water.
Which you can't see from anywhere in the house.

And I thought your take on the shin-barking hazard of stairs without risers was spot on. As the wife of a tall man with big feet, I can see that happening a lot.

Marcolo, I'm with you, too - what's the point of celebrating your life's successes by choosing a gorgeous MCM house in a lovely spot if you have to give up cocktails so you won't kill yourself or spend all your time in tort court?

As to the level change thing - our back porch drops by one step to the landing where you turn to go down, and we have to warn everyone that it's there. This spring, we're painting either the porch floor or the landing a deeper shade - a color change can signal the level change pretty effectively.

Maybe I have a sick sense of humor, but I found the article funny. Personally I would absolutely love to have gorgeous riser-less stairs (but with a railing) in my home. As well as a waterfall as marcolo has depicted. I don't have any kids, so it would just be me taking a tumble.

You guys are missing the whole point. All the stone and hard surfaces? SUPER easy to wipe the blood off of those and resume the party ;)

White water rafting right from your basement steps. I would have loved that as a kid!

Great fun to read, and thanks for sharing. Had my share of blood and gore running wild in the woods in our 'hood, which included a cave we all visited as kids. Nobody had a house like that though. I think the stairs scare me more than anything.

lol jakabedy, good point.

That bench? It was the ONLY item of furniture I owned, except a waterbed, for several years.

I haven't been able to throw away the Mexican style blanket/throw that covered it.

mnzinnia, you made me remember the 18-month old child in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" who was confined in a playpen with a top because he never saw a lock he couldn't pick ...