I'm looking to upgrade into a larger home. I found 2 that I like but I need some advice about toddlers (mine's 19 months) with pools and/or stair cases? Do you all have them around your kids, would you wait to upgrade if you had to move to a home with a staircase or pool for child safety reasons?
Any opinions much appreciated. This is my first child and I'm very worried about making the right choice for him as well as my hubby and I.

You can definitely child-proof both stairs and pools. With stairs, it's easy -- you just need a gate at the top and bottom. With pools, you'll need to put up a full enclosure around it -- which isn't pretty but I think most parents are fine with sacrificing style for safety.

If it were me considering the home upgrade, I would not let the presence of stairs or a pool deter me from getting a nice family home.

i live in a 2 story home. mackenzie is only allowed to crawl around downstairs, so we have a gate on the stairs on the main floor. if she does crawl upstairs it's in our room and we keep the door shut, so no need to have one up there.

if you decide on a home with stairs or pools you just have to be diligent to keep your LO/s safe. good locks on the door and/or an enclosure for the pool. there are so many different types of child proofing available. :)

Many families have homes with stairs, and as long as you are diligent about keeping the gate closed you should be fine. And with a pool, please make sure you child-proof the pool ASAP before or when you move in. People have had children who were old enough to open doors die as soon as the morning after moving into a home with a pool - before they even had the opportunity to child-proof it. But many people have pools that are quite safe, surrounded by fences and equipped with alarms. Just remember that you cannot be too careful with a pool!

We just bought a house last September, it has two staircases (one main staircase going upstairs to the bedrooms/office/bathroom, and one going to the basement). I plan on keeping the basement door bolted once the baby becomes mobile. With the main staircase, we'll be using baby gates (and will also use a gate on our child's bedroom doorway). We'll also teach our child how to maneuver stairs safely from an early age (sitting down on its bum to scoot down, for example).

I wouldn't let stairs stop me from getting a house, you just have to take precautions and keep an eye on them.

Here's a recent thread about pools:
Outdoor Pool and kids!

we just bouthgt a house in june and we are now planning on putting in stair gates at each of the stairs thats all i can think of doing for stairs... we dont have a pool yet but i woudl say that gating it would be your best bet

We have a large wrought iron staircase that we can't put a gate in front. We gate the area he is allowed to play in...great room/kitchen and then a gate at his bedroom doorway. Gate as much as you can!

Thanks so much for all the responses ladies and the other thread on pools as well. I decided against the pool. I think I'd worry too much with the pool and will have one put in when my man is more mature. The stairs sound ok with baby gates. I think I need to tour the house again to make sure baby gates will work at both the top and bottom stair entry ways.

buy the house you love.

my friend has a gate around her pool as well as an alarm on the back door that leads to the pool area. so every time you open up the back door the alarm beeps. it's not loud but you hear it throughout the house, and it'll definitely get your attention.

i have stairs in my house as well. and you definitely don't have to be a baby to bust your butt. i rarely wear shoes in the upstairs portion of the house, but one morning i was running late and i was charging down the hall and my heel somehow got stuck in the fibers of the rug, well, needless to say i flew over several stairs and landed on my side. not fun.

My 4 kids grew up in a house with stairs (inside and outside) and a pool. They were water babies every summer and absolutely loved it. I find that pools bring other "problems" like constant visitors and people who thing you are babysitters for their children, lol.

We've owned homes w/ pools and stairs the whole time we've had children.
We gated off the stairs for my twins, never needed to w/ my DD.
We've had pretty iron fencing around every pool PLUS KEYED deadbolts leading outdoors.
So they can't even get outside and if they do - like we let them - they cannot get into gated pool area. Our fencing is 5 feet tall the the gates are also locked.
It's no big deal - just a few modifications

Another thing with stairs- it's a good idea not to have bare wood stairs, and to have them covered with carpet or runners. The people we bought our house from told us a story about the wife carrying her newborn down the wooden stairs in socks, and she almost fell and dropped her baby! They immediately had the stairs carpeted, and I feel much safer with carpeted stairs.

^ I slipped down the stairs carrying my daughter. Hurt like hell, but instinct made me grab hold tighter of her and take the force and resulting pain for myself. Ouch.

No more socks on the stairs.

yes carpeted stairs until your kids are older is a good idea. and definitely no socks!

I'm still looking, so appreciate all the info and stories. I probably should be more worried about stairs for myself since I'm clumsy. I will definitely get them carpeted or a runner.