Baby Proofing Journey

3 years ago when we purchased our house we were not thinking about how we would baby proof it when the time came. Of course we purchased on of the most difficult baby proofing houses! The biggest problem was with the stairs leading upstairs and downstairs from our dinning room.
The problem... there is nothing to attach a gate to in the middle of the two stairways and we couldn't use a super long gate because you would not be able to open/close if you were on the opposite side than the latch. We purchased a newell post and found that most gates do not attach to skinny posts. Or you needed to buy all these extra pieces and extension kits to make it work! $$$ We returned our purchased newel post and had a my dad build a newel post.
How nice does that look?

So the next step was finding a gate. We did not want one that would swing open because it would block the doorway to the kitchen if it was open. And it could not swing over the stairs. After a ton of searching I found a gate that rolls up. We purchased one and it was damaged, had to return that....we finally got one that works. Brian installed it this weekend. Here is the gate closed....








Here is the gate when it is open.





(Yes it is safe and is approved for use at the top and bottom of the steps) Using the gate will take some practice (at least for me). We have a removable gate for the stairs going up but we also use that for the kitchen.
I know we are not the only people in the world that have a stairways like this. So why was it so difficult??? The next step is building a railing on that part of the stairway.

Today Brian worked the kitchen cabinets. That was not as difficult. Next weekend is the railing that over looks the family room. I found a clear roll of this hard plastic stuff that you attach across the railing so no hands, feet, head or toys can go through the railings.