I Like Simple Solutions

When I first looked at the Apple House, our land lord's wife pointed out the Staircase of Death to us.

Clearly, the original owner was not worried about small children living or visiting this house.  Yes, those posts are about 18 inches apart and a full size adult can fit through them.  A baby could just crawl right through those inviting looking slots and fall to their death!

True to our nature, we told her we weren't too worried about it.  We would figure something out before Leo started crawling.  We talked about it often.  We though wrought iron bars might look nice.  We called someone to come look at it, but they never made it out. . .

Then.

this adorable innocent looking creature started to do this:

Time's Up, Mom and Dad.  Time to fix the problem.

It was time to find a solution, and do it quickly.

I had a ball of jute twine sitting on my counter from a gift wrapping use and as I was thinking about this problem I saw it and inspiration struck.

Plain old jute twine is useful for so many things.  I laced it around the top and bottom of the banister, spacing the strands about one inch apart.  Those strings are on there tight tight and no baby is making it through there.

Cheap, simple, and 100% removable.  As a bonus, John Henry has found that they are strung so tight that when you pick them they make "music."  (Lucky me!)