Carpeted Stairs

I have never lived anywhere with carpeted stairs. I realized this while we were house hunting over the weekend. Not important really. When I was growing up our steps where not finished. We had the risers and the steps but they were just wood, unfinished. My parents (my dad mostly) built the house himself. Every stone and nail he did himself. He worked away from home long hours and had all kinds of farm chores and my mom worked 3rd shift at a hospital. Did I mention that they had 6 children? So even after 40 years there are still some unfinished bits of their house--like the stairs. Other rooms have been redone a couple of times while somethings remained as they had for the last 20 years. Up until the summer before I got married, we didn't have a front porch. Just a big drop from the front door. We always knew if there was a stranger at the door because they would always knock on the front door instead of coming around the back like everyone else. But the summer that I got married my dad finished the front porch. Prior to that when I was in high school my paternal grandmother came to live with us, and until she came to live with us we had no bathroom doors. Just blankets stapled up or folding screens. But when she came the doors when on. Now that all the children have moved out of the house there are some things that I imagine will never be completed, like closet doors. Not one closet in my parents home has a door. I put up curtains over my closet when I lived there to keep my clothes from fading just on one shoulder, I think those are still there. Other things that will remain unfinished-the floors. The only floors that are finished are the ones with carpets, the bedrooms and the living room and den, but the hallways, bathrooms and kitchen still have particle board floors (although my dad did seal them some time ago) My mom sometimes gives my dad a hard time about this but his response is: "do you really need them" and of course the answer is no. Not that my dad doesn't want to finish, but he would rather be working outside in the field or in the barn or helping someone who really "needs" something done. I think it is honorable and I am proud of him...and I am proud of my mom for living without closet doors, finished floors, baseboards, etc.... I think the house says a lot about my parents. Every little unfinished bit tells you something that they did for their children or someone else. For every peice of tile or wood that is missing are 100 things that they did for my brothers and sisters and I. For every nail that is missing is 100 things that they have done for people in their lives.