Did you know that stairs are like magnets for 20-month-olds?
We knew even before the move that we would have to gate the top and bottom of the stairs for Weston's safety.
What we didn't fully realize was the crazy configuration of our 1986-built banister.
Here you can see that about 6 inches below and 3 inches inside of the banister rail lies an interior handrail, thus prohibiting all attachment of the numerous products sold under the category of:
stair gates
For several days, mommy and daddy would stand around the bottom step, contemplating how we were possibly going to attach a gate to this arrangement.
After purchasing a $40 "stair gate mounting kit" at Babies-R-Us, we discovered that it consisted only of a thin piece of wood and some plastic bits. We returned that mounting kit, by the way.
ENTER: Clever-at-wit's-end-ready-to-make-this-problem-go-away-MacGyver-Daddy
We all go to Lowe's and purchase:
Pipe foam insulation
100 Zip ties
96 inches of 2 x 4
Handsaw (Side note - The handsaw was only purchased because we were informed that Lowe's could not cut the 2x4 for us because their "saw was broken." Seriously? Aren't you a store full of saws? Aren't you like a saw store?)
Here is daddy assembling his clever invention:
TA-DA!
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