Home Improvement: Una Escalera Caracol (Part 2)
The installation of our spiral staircase progresses.
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Home Improvement: Una Escalera Caracol
There is only one way to reunite our home's first and second floors: install a spiral staircase.
When we first stayed in our hillside Oaxacan home as Airbnb guests the dual nature of the house only seemed like a benefit. Having the upstairs and downstairs as completely separate living spaces gave us total privacy during our stay and later, when we were considering buying the house, the idea of being able to host our own paying guests was extremely compelling.
When we learned we’d be having a baby we realized, though, that not only would more space be a bit of a necessity, reclaiming the ground floor would allow us to continue to customize our home. Up until now, the downstairs has remained decorated more or less as it was when we bought the house. It’s lovely, but also time for us to assert more of our own style. We resolved to install an escalera caracol—a spiral staircase—the only type of staircase that the very particular configuration and dimensions of our home would allow.
Lalo the ironworker was the person to talk to for the project and after many weeks of consultations, measurements, text conversations about designs, and a huge amount of Googling for information about dimensions and configurations, we gave him a deposit and he began work. Not too long after on a sunny morning, he messaged me to say that he’d need more of the deposit than we’d originally given him and I told him that I’d be happy to bring the money to him at his workshop, a place I’d never been before.
Lalo’s workshop occupies a generously sized lot just one town over. After you pass through the metal gate that separates his workshop from the road you can see the plot holds a few small buildings and metal sheds. As Lalo walked up to greet me I saw that about 20 or 30 feet away was another man wearing a welding mask. Lalo was shaking my hand when suddenly the unknown man’s handheld torch enveloped him in a shower of sparks. Looking over at him, Lalo commented that he often has as many as four other people helping him complete the projects he takes on.
One of the most magical things about living in Oaxaca is the ability to hire people to make things for you, to your exact specifications. But even considering that having access to bespoke furniture, clothing, and more is a bit wild, seeing those items in the process of being made is even more incredible. As Lalo held up the various bits and pieces of the staircase he told me a bit about how they were put together, and he gestured toward an immense iron pole sitting on the ground. That, he said, would be the center column for the staircase.
My visit to Lalo’s workshop happened only a few weeks before the birth of our son, and in the weeks leading up to it, the only question I had for Lalo was about timing. We knew we’d be in the hospital for at least one night but it could be up to two or three days, and we needed to make sure that we wouldn’t be returning to an active construction site.
Finally, Lalo gave me a date he could come to install the staircase—November 16th. The scheduled day of Leo’s birth.
After Andrea and I stopped laughing, we realized it was perfect. Not only would we be returning home with our new baby, but a defining feature of our home would also be there waiting for us.
Leo’s birth occupied every spare corner of my brain, but sitting in the hospital room after he and Andrea had gone to sleep, I texted Edgar to ask how the installation had gone.
“Bien,” Edgar texted back, along with a few photos.
It was incredible. Not only had Lalo incorporated all of the design elements we had asked for, but the staircase looked even better than I could have imagined. It wasn’t just an incredible thing to have added to the house, it was clear it would be one of the defining design elements in our home.
Later, I took more (slightly less wonky) pictures.
You may have noticed that the stairs seem dreadfully unsafe. That’s because they’ll be finished by our carpintero, Edher, who in mid-December will be making both the steps themselves and a wood railing for the banister. More to come!
What a beautiful escalera caracal. Amazing artistry.