Safety First

Ever since our Grandson learned to walk

there was no stopping him.

He is very mobile and moves quickly.

I just remembered that I never did a post

about our staircase dilemma and grandchildren.

We have an open staircase that leads down

to our lower level.

We needed to get a baby

gate so our little guy wasn't tempted to try

and walk down the stairs. Trying to find a

baby gate to fit our open staircase was

next to impossible. Our problem was our

handrail and newel post. We couldn't attach

the gate to the wall because the handrail

was in the way, and we couldn't attach

the other end of the gate onto the round newel post.

For some reason when the house was built, the

builder didn't extent the banister to the same

length as the wall. Notice how the newel post

sits back further than the wall?

We knew we definitely didn't want to cut the

handrail or alter the newel post to fit a gate.

So I did some brainstorming and came up with an idea

that I hoped would work, fingers crossed.

We attached a 2 x 4 piece of board to the round

newel post using heavy duty zip ties.

We ordered a plain wooden baby gate.

I stained it the same color as our staircase and

then Hubby got to work on my brainstorming idea.

By adding the 2 x 4 we were able to attach the gate

by drilling into the piece of wood without damaging the newel post.

The other side of the gate got a little notch cut out

and then pieced back together.

Now we can swing it over our handrail.

It was the perfect solution to our dilemma.

This gate is solidly built and sturdy.

Our Grandson can attest to that.

When the gate is not in use, it swings up against the banister and blends in.

We also needed a gate on our deck.

So Hubby created one in about 2 hours.

Now our home is a safe haven for our grandchildren.

That's it for this week.

Until Next Time,

Veronica