Our dude is 10 months old, and now crawling and standing himself up.
So that means that all that worrying about what we were going to do with the "hole", as we affectionately call it, came crashing in, and all our ideas had to become reality. And fast.
Yes, the railing is cool, but no, it's not even close to code. If you walk out of the room for a moment, a kid could easily crawl to this railing and under. Something had to be done.
Now, I didn't take any photos of the frames themselves, because the process was sort of a disaster. These are not meant to be permanent installations, so I was using just cheap 1x2 furring strips, but they're prone to cracking, so it was a longer process than I hoped.
Basically, I took all my measurements, and luckily the balcony is pretty square, so I had to build 4 identical frames, and two frames that were just a half inch different from each other. I cut the furring strips so that the ends would be butted, not met an angle, then screwed each corner one by one. I have a 90 degree clamp that has been a lifesaver, so I clamped that on, drilled a pilot hole to prevent the wood from cracking (only really worked 80% of the time anyway), put in a wood screw, and then stapled both sides to give it more rigidity. This process ended up taking longer, and required more patience, but it saved a ton of money. I also didn't need to be too concerned with the strength of the wood, since it would be secured to the railing, and there's a lip there that provides enough strength.
Becky bought a few yards of canvas on discount from the local fabric store - again, not looking for something designer, just something strong that doesn't look like absolute hell. She and her mom worked with the frames, as warped and finicky as they were, and wrapped and stretched and stapled, and with a couple days, we had 6 perfectly good panels. Again, bad blogger, no in-progress photos of that.
From upstairs:
From downstairs:
I broke out the Little Giant, air compressor and brad nailer, and nailed them into place from the inside. That way there are no staples or nails where the kids can reach them, just a flat canvas panel.
I'm sure in a few years I'll have a post up here about the net we installed. So stay tuned for that!
