Why not a shade sail with a gauzy fabric that would be rolled up most of the time but could be unrolled and tied down when you will be out? In my experience, the problem with temporary gazebos is that they fall apart in the wind. You would have a secondary issue that the shade sail is not engineered to hold the weight of the screen plus the wind the screen walls catch, so it would have to be a light fabric whatever you use (and again, I would suggest something you can roll up). I am going to be adding some cheesecloth-like fabric (not sure what I will use yet, maybe even old lace curtains, thinking "shabby chic") to my victorian kitchen porch so we can sit on it-it will add shade and bug protection. But I will do it so that I can roll it up into the roof if the wind is bad. We had one of those $300 gazebos (I think it was 10x10 or 12x12 when we lived in Illinois and it barely lasted the season before the wind sheared it. I think it was aluminum. Also, have you looked into solar fan options?

We were vising some old neighbors and I noticed that they had wallpapered their refrigerator - why? I don't have a clue. But you could easily wallpaper the backsplash and it would be thin enough that it wouldn't alter the outlets. Now that I think of it - I'm not sure if it was wall paper or contact paper. I didn't have the nerve to ask.

I am also renovating while living in a very old house. I am also doing it with not one but 2 toddlers. I would say that while living with sub floor or cement is fine for adults, it is not so great for toddlers. I do have sub floor right now in my kitchen and have for about 3 months (floor is going in this month). My kids are not allowed in that room right now because there are splinters that will come up randomly if you walk in socks also it gets dirty and stays dirty you can't really mop it (and we know how much kids spill stuff). And if you have concrete is just plain hard on little knees and poor little heads if they fall. Subflooring is a good solution if you are living with it for short periods while completeing a room and moving on to the next. Our kids are used to a room being off limits for a while then being open again, gates go up and come down around here often, but as a long term solution I would look at a discount store for click laminate if you don't want a cheap carpet. I did a large room in our last rental place for under $100 in laminate we found at Ollies. Even if you don't install all the way to the walls it will give your child something to play on and something for his/her feet to run on. JMO though.

I just moved into a rental too, so I'm looking for the same things. There are removable stick-ons, even wallpaper, that can help a lot. I like the "wall words" stick on words and phrases. My friend took her moving boxes, broke them down and made a huge, flat piece that covered one entire wall of her bedroom, covered that with wallpaper, and tacked it up to her wall with those Command strips. You can buy the strips separately in packs, or just use tiny drywall tacks that don't leave big holes. She's not really allowed to hang a lot of pictures that leave holes in the walls, so she got a piece of lattice fencing, painted it a really pretty complementary green color to go with her LR furniture, hung it from the ceiling on plant hooks (which she is allowed to have - go figure) and hung her pictures on that. Makes a unique and pretty wall. In my kitchen, I have a washer/dryer closet that has no door. I'm going to make a "door" out of 2x4s and pegboard, with one side to hold my pots and pans, and the other to hold spices and utensils. I'm not going to "hang" the door, just put it on rollers, so I can roll it out to turn it around easily when I need to, and to allow the W/D to be moved in and out easily if necessary. That will free up a lot of cabinet space in my tiny little kitchen (the only part I hate about my apartment). Also, there is a huge opening into the kitchen (sort of open floor plan), so I'm going to put small, narrow shelves up each side and across the top. The LR side will be shelves to hold knick-knacks and the kitchen side will be pegboard to hold other things. My kitchen cabinet doors under the sink have water damage, so I'm removing them and putting a nice "skirt" there under the sink. That way, I can easily take it down to wash it if it gets dirty. Since my kitchen has no window (bummer), this is the only way I can add a kitchen curtain of sorts.