Babyproofed!

This house posed quite the babyproofing challenge, but we're done and happy with the result. I just wanted to share in case others need ideas for difficult layouts. We didn't need gates when Elise was a baby... we had a one-story house and just kept the bathroom door closed.

Our main problem areas are stairs... we have four half-flights that are constantly used. It didn't make sense to gate the top and bottom of every set of stairs... it would have been very annoying, potentially unsafe with Elise on the stairs, and very expensive to buy the attachments that would actually fit these stairs since there aren't mounting options on both sides. So, I scoured craigslist for a few weeks and bought two used Kidco Hearth Gates. Together, they block off the main stairs, front door, kitchen, both bathrooms, basement, and bedrooms while granting access to the play areas and living room.

Front door is on the left, bedrooms are upstairs, kitchen is through the door on the right

View from upstairs (we moved the table that used to be in this space and the playroom is around the corner on the left beyond the couch)

Next, we took down the shutter-style doors that connected the playroom and kitchen and replaced them with a North States Super Gate Easy Close Gate. This link is for the extra tall version, which we are using in another location. The thing I like the most is that these gates have a stay open feature. They are also easy enough to open that we will be able to teach Elise how to open them so that she can go to the bathroom by herself, etc. I don't think she would be able to figure it out without us showing her, though. You can see the gate on the left side in the open position.

And here, of course, is the reason for the gates...

The next problem area is in the kitchen, because we have another set of stairs that connects the kitchen and living room. These aren't carpeted, but we definitely didn't want to have gates at the top and bottom, which is why we added the previous gate to block off the kitchen so that we don't need a gate at the top.

And last, we finally finished the basement. We have so much room for storage that the basement is better used for playing. The totes that you see are blocking off exposed brick, golf clubs, and cords. Jack has a playpen (thanks, Mimi!) and exersaucer (thanks, craigslist!) and we moved the slide in from the backyard (again, thanks to craigslist!). The washing machine and dryer are to the right of the picture, so this is a great way for Elise to entertain herself while I am doing laundry.

This girl is so happy about her basement play room... (excuse the hair, we just came from gymnastics!)