Makeover Monday: Baby Gate

When it was time to register for Drew we decided to get a highly recommended baby gate. It ended up not working with our stairway because of the type of railing we have so AJ had to come up with an alternate plan. It was getting a little too hard to stick things in front of the stairs like a giant sheet of plywood. :)

Of course, now that I'm looking for the before photo I realize I must have deleted it in a moment of stupidity. Well, picture a dark brown hollow core door. You know, the kind Home Depot practically pays YOU to take off their shelf because they are so ugly and boring. We had these in the master bedroom for closet doors and AJ repurposed it by cutting it to fit the dimensions of the stairway and securing it with two hinges.

I decided to cover the entire thing in maps from the same atlas that I used to cover the trivet.  I put Modge Podge on the front and back of the gate and then kept covering the entire thing in maps and then covered the maps in Modge Podge. It's not perfect. I definitely need to take a razor to the edge of the gate to clean up the paper but it works and Drew hasn't fallen down the stairs yet (probably my #1 fear EVER).

AJ then hooked two locks up to the railing to make it extra secure... except our child seems to be a genius at figuring out these latches and has figured out how to unhook the top one, the bottom one is quite a bit tighter so he hasn't been able to do that yet. We are watching him like a hawk.

And yes, he is the perfect height to gnaw at the top of the gate. :) Hence all the missing maps. I've got to redo it and throw a coat of polyurethane over it so he can't eat it again... You'd think I didn't feed him every 10 minutes.

Here is the view as we come up the stairs, I can't wait till we put hardwood in the landing so we can get rid of that stupid looking rug on the stair.

Now onto the report on the Move It Challenge... Anyone else challenging themselves over these two weeks? I'm warning you, I didn't eat the healthiest food yesterday, just ate it in moderate portions.

Pre-run / shower / makeup on Friday.

Breakfast

Bowl of cereal

2 fresh eggs from our chickens with onions and peppers

Snacks

5 animals crackers

5 chocolate chips

Carrots and hummus

1/3 of a banana with the tiniest bit of Teddie's All Natural PB

Lunch

Potato Gnocci with pesto (didn't eat till I was full)

Dinner

Small bowl of Broccoli and Cheddar soup (at friend's house)

2 chocolate covered strawberries that I shared with Drew

2 pieces of bread

After we got home...

1 baked chicken breast with a small amount of broccoli, feta and rotini

Water

48 oz (too little!)

I think my portions were okay yesterday but I definitely wasn't eating super healthily for lunch or dinner. And I didn't need the chicken breast, darn.

Exercise

Walked 3 miles with Drew to put him to sleep before church

LINKING

I'm linking this to The Nester.