The art of baby proofing

Having a baby means a lot of things. To me, the latest thing is “baby-proofing”. There are lots of pieces to making a house ready for a baby/toddler to crawl around. The first step was putting up a gate to keep Aiden in the living room. That sort of worked, but the area was too big and still too many objects he could access, so we put in a portable play yard. OK, one room ready. Next was the kitchen. The previous owners had done some baby proofing, but didn’t finish or took it out, I can’t really tell. They had a combination of Tot Lok and other plastic clips. I liked the Tot Lok system as I didn’t have to reach my fingers in the cabinet to open it. So, I replaced some of the locks and installed locks on the rest of the doors and drawers. None of the drawers had the locks and the reason is simple. They’re a royal pain in the you know what to install. Furthermore, due to the panels on the front of our drawers, technically they aren’t even supposed to work. Well, I managed to get all the locks installed and yesterday finished our 2 bathrooms upstairs (the rest of the areas we can simply close the doors).

That’s a start, but not all of it. Since our house was built in 1973, the railing on the stairs wasn’t up to current safety code. When we moved in, there was cheap plexiglass zip tied to the railing to prevent little ones from getting their heads stuck between the rails. First thing I did when we moved in was rip that done; it was cheesy. Now came the time for us to need it. There were a few options, but the one that appealed to me most (and happened to be the most expensive) was to completely replace the railing. Now would be a good opportunity for me to get rid of the cheap looking steel railing and get a nice wood one. My wife said, “whatever, just get it done”. So I recruited my father to find someone to do the railing. Turns out there are only a few people that do replacement railings in San Diego. I got quotes and the railing should be completely installed on Wednesday (I still have to apply the finish which I’ve decided will be a clear urethane). It is looking good and will be another piece that makes our house look more modern.

I still have to anchor some free standing cabinets to the wall, but I’m well on my way to making our house a bit safer for our little one.

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