Fancy Childproofing

Since we bought our house two years ago, we've lived with a homely, beat-up, dirty excuse for a railing. It was functional and prevented treacherous falls into the stairwell below. But, we knew with Sylvie's imminent mobility in the next few months the metal monster would no longer be sufficient. It wasn't to code and there was a reasonable chance that she would either be able to get through it or under it. So, we bit the bullet and sprung for a nice, new, honest-to-goodness railing. One impervious to small mobile babies. One with a little flair and beauty. That's right folks, we've got another set of before and after pics!

We opted to go the professional route with this project because after giving the railing world a once-over, we knew it was going to take too much time and effort. Plus, this thing is in a very prominent position in our house and the last thing we wanted was to spend a bunch of money and time on something that would end up with crooked balusters and loose newels (I just learned those words!).

I wanted to make sure we found someone trustworthy who did good work, so I used Angie's List to find a carpenter in our area. Then I picked the guy who had the same last name as us so's I could remember it in the future. I thought it was a pretty good idea. Turns out I'm a genius because Gunnar Hanson from Hanson Home Works did a great job. And people thought we were starting our own business while his trailer was parked our driveway. He also hung up bifold closet doors for us because we've been without those since we've been here too. Turns out doing home improvement projects with a baby in tow isn't near as easy as when you're childless and have large sums of money to throw around. Go figure. Anyway, my point is, if you live in the same general vicinity as we do and have some work you need done, give Gunnar a call.

As you can see, the new railing turned out awesome and we couldn't be happier. And *GASP* we even have a handrail now! Guess we'll have to find some other way besides descending the stairs to get our thrills. Maybe I'll take up crowd surfing.