We have a Very Brady Staircase in our house, which is open above and below in a very contemporary mid-century modern way. While a realtor might describe such a structure in glowing terms, she's not the one cleaning semi-digested hot dogs off the floors and walls when her youngest projectile vomits a cascading stream of lava-like puke down the stairs.
Yes, an open staircase means vomit can flow to areas that would otherwise have been protected on a more traditional one. Everything below it could be spattered with a little bit of this, a smidgen of that. Ah, and at the very bottom is a cramped space beneath the stairs -- very difficult to get into, yet oh-so-necessary that I do.
I love scrubbing and disinfecting and doing laundry in the middle of the night with the man I love. It's so romantic.
