No keys required!

I’ve complained before that sometimes I feel we live in a house of straw – just waiting for a puff of wind to come along and knock it down. Last week, I was really starting to feel down about it. We still had the hole upstairs from the time the stairgate came away from from the wall together with a big chunk of plaster. I know that happened months ago, but neither Charlie nor I are particularly proactive when it comes to DIY. We both hate it, and we are quite talented at ignoring these little jobs until they really start to stack up.

The ceiling in our hallway still needs to be painted following a leak with had last year. We keep making the excuse that it’s not right to do any painting while Little Man is in the house breathing in the fumes. Of course he’s always in the house with us, so that’s a particularly effective excuse! So far, it’s been working for about 9 months. One of these days we’ll get around to painting that ceiling.

Anyway, the final straw, so to speak, was the hole in the kitchen door. Besides the fact that looking at it reminded me of the trauma of “that day“, it’s hard to ignore a gaping big hole in your kitchen door. Certainly not as easy as ignoring a small little hole at ankle level in a dark stairway! So I decided we had to sort it out as soon as possible. For the past couple of weekends, we’ve dragged Little Man around various DIY and hardware shops looking for a replacement door. It turns out our doorway is not a standard width, and it’s actually very difficult to find a replacement.

But I just couldn’t look at the big gaping hole anymore, so this weekend when Charlie’s parents were visiting, we recruited his Dad to help us with a few projects. First things first, the hole in the wall upstairs has been filled. All it needs now is to be smoothed with some sandpaper and then a lick of paint. That should only take a few months! At least it’s a step in the right direction.

A few other small jobs later, we tackled the kitchen door. We’ve removed it completely, and in its place we put a stairgate. It’s a pressure gate that Charlie’s parents picked up in Lidl last week. And you know what, I think it’s perfect! I can close the stairgate, safe in the knowledge that Little Man is being kept far away from the hot oven. And he can stand there and watch me working in the kitchen. Later that same day, we finally found a place that has a replacement door for us – typical! But I’ve decided I like the stairgate so much I think we’ll keep it for a while! The replacement door can wait – that’s enough DIY for one year!

Our new kitchen door!