Every decision has a price tag attached to it. I cannot control that. Materials cost money and people's time cost money. That is only fair. I can, however, control my own time... what I do with my days.... my nights... my commitment... how hardcore I decide I'm going to be for the next two hours... the next twenty minutes. I am in control of my own destiny.
However...
Sometimes I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
Fortunately... I, along with two of the brightest and the best from the old Pittsburgh gang, built a new set of stairs on Saturday. If we do the work ourselves, we can afford the cost, given we can manage the task. So we ripped out the temporary stairs and proceeded to build and install the new stair, which happens to face the opposite direction of the stair that it replaced.
It was definitely the move. The transition from floor to floor is much more fluid and the change fixed an awkward condition that has long bothered me. The guys came over on Saturday before I got there and hung out with the welder while he worked on the courtyard doors. There is no way I could have built the stair in one day without these guys. It was a marvel to watch. They were out in the front yard making jigs, using laser sight circular saws, and at one point in time (don't hold me to this)...
...But I think I saw them using some form of quantum new math-space age-long division to accurately work out the stair heights.
It was like watching the discovery channel.