Baby-proofing, contractor style

We’re living in our house while it’s being worked on.  That’s fun!  Well, it’s actually not been too bad, because our contractors are really quite pleasant to work with, friendly, and accommodating.  They don’t mind that I’m still going in and out of the kitchen in the morning when they get here, making breakfast for the kids.  We usually are out and about for most of the day, and we’ve been doing naps and quiet time at my sister and brother-in-law’s house.

The contractors did put up plastic in the doorways as a means of controlling dust.  There’s a bunch of dust involved in demolishing walls, taking down a chimney, sanding down the mudded new sheetrock, and all that fun stuff.  There will be still more when the floors get refinished.  We’re more than pleased to have a dust barrier between the work zone and the other areas of the house. 

PLUS!  The plastic has zippers in it, and that’s how you get in and out.  If it’s zipped, you can’t get through.  Unzip, and you’re once again able to make your way into the construction zone.  This has been a mighty revelation in the area of baby-proofing.  Well, toddler-proofing, in this case. 

This is a view from the living room of one of the doors:

The blue painter’s tape adds an extra something, I think.  The key is, when it’s zipped, Simeon cannot get through.  At all.  There is no chance of falling into holes or grabbing tools or generally getting into trouble.  He can’t get through.

This frustrates him no end, of course, but has been a sanity-saver for his mother.  Although I don’t often leave him alone while this work is going on, I do have to use the bathroom occasionally.  And sometimes I have to get something out of one of the rooms that’s on the other side of the plastic.

This is the door from the kitchen to the dining room.  The one above is the middle-zipper-only model, this one is the double-zipper model.  At the end of work each day, the contractors rolls this one up and clip the door part so that it’s easy to get through. 

This is ingenious.  I’ve read about people whose kids climb over baby gates and Houdini out of other containment efforts, but with this system, they’d be pretty safe, until the kids learned to open the zipper.

Okay, I’m not saying that it’s something I’m going to ask them to leave up when they finish, but I am saying that I really appreciate its help in keeping my son safe and contained while the work is going on.  My daughters can open the zippers.  But they’re not prone to grab Mr. Jeremy’s tools and try to use them, either.