Baby Gate Tips
When we bought our home last year, one of the items on the inspection that we didn’t request for the previous home-owner to complete was screening the fireplace. The chimney also needed to be cleaned and a new topper put on the top. We are now one step closer to being able to use our fireplace, and we also have a barrier to keep Sweet Pea from climbing into it! I am so glad that it no longer looks like a big sooty hole in our living room. We also recently installed a wall mount for our TV so our living room is definitely looking more put-together these days.We decided on a glass door system after browsing around and deciding that Sweet Pea would just pull down any screen that wasn’t fully attached to the fireplace, and we have a smallish living room so we didn’t want to totally baby-gate off the fireplace area. A door seemed the safest and most attractive way to go. However, doors can cost as much as $1400, which was not really in our budget for the month. We asked a sales-person for some ideas and she showed us a hidden upstairs area with returned and floor-model fireplaces and doors. The one she showed us that would fit our fireplace opening was not what I had in mind in terms of looks, but the price was right: reduced from $600 to $299. We went home to think about it, and a week later we were back to buy. While the door set we got is not exactly my style, I do think that it goes with the era of our home, and the style of the rest of the fireplace. It is a light gold/bronze color, and I prefer black or silver usually, but looking at it in our house I think it is really the best choice.
Average installed it himself with a borrowed hammer drill, a screwdriver, hammer, tape measure, 5/16 pin punch, and button-head concrete fasteners.
10 comments:
Katherine said…We have always taken the same tact with our dog (65lb female choc. lab). Our dog was crate trained from the beginning, and so slept in her crate in the porch. This of course doesn’t work as well in the winter, so she sleeps in the main bedroom with my parents then. They have had no trouble with taking this step in terms of her dominance. I should also note that we don’t need to use the crate for her anymore, because she has gotten used to just going to the porch when we go to bed or leave the house.
sarah said…I don’t have a dog at the moment but when we did we let her sleep wherever. The last day I had was a miniature dachshund so she was in the bed. When it came to “sexy time” we pushed her out of the bed and into the other room. ha ha. When I was a kid I had 2 large dogs a German Shepard/Golden mix who never attempted to sleep in my bed and a Golden who slept in my bed (this dog was HUGE too). But everyone is different so you are going to get different things. I think now that I am an adult (really) I wouldn’t want a dog in my bed. The cats sleep in the bed with us though. Which is awkward when the try to climb in with you during our romantic evenings. lol
Amy said…We have a Boston Terrier—he’s our first dog and I believe we should do a lot of things differently in the future. Soba sleeps with us in our bed—-it helps that he’s 21 pounds and only has a little hair that doesn’t shed much. I wanted a dog since I was five and by the time we got our dog at age 29 I was not thinking down the road. He whimpered the first night (he was four months old), I slept next to the crate downstairs for all of 20 minutes, and he’s been in our bed ever since—total lack of self-control on my part and cuteness on his. He does love the large pillow bed that we bought him and having his own bed upstairs (in the room next door) and downstairs has helped when we don’t want him around. :)
Jackie said…We have 2 dogs (border collie and golden retriever) and 2 cats. The dogs are not allowed on the furniture or allowed to sleep in the bed, not there would be any room for them anyway. The cats on the other hand do whatever they want. The dogs do sleep in the bedroom though. We also have a baby gate for the day time, ours keeps them in out of the main area of the house though and they can spend their days sleeping in the bedroom in their beds.
Carrie said…We have 3 labs and all but one wants to sleep in our room. We have a dog bed in there that one always sleeps on, the other one sleeps on the floor by the window. The youngest likes to sleep in the living room. They don’t care what is or isn’t going on in the bed so there has been no need to kick them out or anything. Getting rid of the baby gate during th day might be fine…but then you might find Ms. Jersey sleeping in your bed when you aren’t there - maybe she won’t since she isn’t allowed on your furniture but you never know. I’m sure she’ll be happier to sleep in the same room as you guys - but you never know she might come in there in the beginning of the night then go back downstairs after you fall asleep. Another thing you’ll have to see about - is if she will try and wake you up in the mornings…our dogs don’t - but I hear that some do :) good luck and let us know how it goes!!
katrina said…My dog is about 40 lbs, and the biggest spoiled brat I’ve ever met. She’s allowed on the people bed when I’m napping, or in the mornings if we’re sleeping in…or I suppose, when we’re not home and I don’t know what she’s doing.
But, she also has a dog bed in the bedroom, and sleeps on it every night, no matter what. Even if she’s up on the bed with me when I fall asleep, she abandons me for her own bed well before mister man comes to sleep. And if we’re up too late, often she just goes to her bed around 10 when she’s had enough and is sure we’re not going to sneak out to the park without her. She also has no interest in what’s going on in the bedroom unless she thinks that we’re headed for the treat jar upstairs.
I have nothing to offer because I’ve never had dogs and probably never will but I do have two things to say:
1. that is indeed a pathetic look! LOL. I’m not surprised she’s got you re-considering things.
2. Whatever you decide, it makes me happy to see that you will do it thoughtfully. Being a great dog owner is a big responsibility and I wish more people were like you. My brother and his girlfriend have a dog and they are so extremely inconsistent in dealing with the dog that she is a nervous wreak half the time.
Well I don’t have a dog, but if I did it would sleep in the room with me. Webster (my kitty) sleeps in the bed with me every night. Usually on the pillow right by my head!
My mom has a bed right beside her bed for her golden lab and he likes that. He cries if she doesn’t let him in the room with her!
I want a dog!! Oh how I want one!
My uncle had a dog named Henry. He always let Henry sleep at the foot of his bed. And though Henry wasn’t allowed on the furniture, he would sneak up there when my uncle wasn’t home.
Anyway, it seemed that even though Henry was able to sleep in the bed upstairs, he still very much knew that my uncle was the leader of the pack.
Interesting post! Thank you for sharing it! Your dog is beautiful!
~Kellie
We have a 25lb cocker spaniel. She sleeps on our bed. I wish I never started this. Half the time she is up near me and in the middle of the night I have to pick her up and put her back at the bottom of the bed.
Last night she had to sleep right on top of my legs!!
Our dog rules the roost in our house!
Why do you need three sets of LATCH? A seatbelt is just as safe, and with three across often you don’t want to use LATCH at all because you can get a few more inches by using the seatbelt.
I can tell you that I don’t think any European or Japanese cars do. So you’d only have to hit all of the American dealerships.
Even if a car does have three, check the manual because often you cannot use all three at once.
Wendy
Cosco and Eddie Bauer car seat recall. In a week or so Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) will announce a recall of more than four million Cosco and Eddie Bauer car seats. The models affected are Cosco Alpha/Omega, Touriva and Hi Back and Eddie Bauer Touriva and Hi Back car seats. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says there are two problems: The webbing on 3,957,826 Dorel seats fails to conform to standards for abrasion; and the webbing on 54,400 car seats may degrade when exposed to sunlight. In both cases, the concern is that the seats won’t provide sufficient protection in a crash. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Cybex strollers recalled because hinges pose hazards. A third stroller has been recalled for problems with the hinges after a child suffered a broken finger when he caught it in the stroller’s hinge mechanism. This recall involves 1,200 Ruby, Onyx and Topaz models of Cybex umbrella strollers, sold at department and juvenile product stores nationwide between August 2009 and November 2009 for between $140 and $260. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
Cheap bike helmets offer same protection as expensive ones. When it comes to bicycle helmets, spending lots of money to get good protection is not necessary. The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute bought and tested six helmets—ranging in price from less than $10 to more than $200—and found they performed almost identically on standard impact tests. So find one that fits well so that it will be positioned correctly when you hit and then choose based on what you can afford to pay. Learn more in the full Safety blog post.
For the past year and a half, I’ve been a part-time caregiver for my father. One of my responsibilities is putting his pills into one of those pill minders. It’s a complex task, as his cardiologist tweaks his medication often. Some medications are given on alternate days, some have to be cut in half and one is different every third day. If a visitor drops by while I’m filling the pill holder, I find myself having to count and recount the pills. Being interrupted during this process is a big problem.
Being interrupted while dispensing medication is a problem for nurses, too, but nursing staff at one California hospital came up with a solution. The nurses wear a bright-colored vest or sash while passing out medications, and the staff is educated not to interrupt them during the process. During the pilot program, the hospital experienced a 47% decrease in errors.
What’s the takeaway for grandparents? If you are handling or dispensing medication, whether for yourself, a parent or a grandchild, don’t allow yourself to be interrupted. You may not have a vest to put on, but you can put on your best grumpy grandparent act. And if you are putting medications into a pill minder, be sure that it’s a child-resistant model. You’ll also want to remember that packaging is child-resistant, not child-proof. Child-resistant means that 85% of the children in the trial must have been unable to open the package within five minutes. Obviously this means that up to 15% of children could open the package within five minutes. We all know some of those children, right? So keep all medication out of the reach of children.
Read more about medication safety.
