Hi Mwrede,
Well first things first....Congratulations!!!!!! How exciting! Your pregnancy and the nesting instinct would have forced you to do some sort of remodeling anyway, you have no choice :) Plus, later on, you'll be so glad you finished the remodel before Baby becomes an active toddler. Active toddlers and demo/construction sites with nails and paint are a bad combo!

Pretty much any safety hazard in a kitchen can be mitigated with some safety gadget from OneStepAhead or Babiesrus. I have a 4 year old and the only real concern I have in my new kitchen that I didn't have to have in the old one is that my range knobs are right on the front so she could just go turning knobs and turning on gas. Before I had an electric range and only had to worry about not using the front burners if I didn't have to.
There are some great features on the new refrigerators, like an alarm if the door is left open for over 5 minutes. That comes in handy.

The best thing to keep in mind is how impressed you'll be with yourself when you find that as Baby learns how to get into new things, you'll be learning right along and keeping right on pace! Reserve a low drawer for Baby's little treasures like colorful tea towels, big plastic serving utensils and hopefully other QUIET things to bang on the floor with, so a durable floor is probably a good idea.

Again, very excited for you! Good luck with everything!

As the mommy of a VERY active (and cute) 18 month old who is also in the midst of a kitchen reno herself here are a few things to think of:

First of all I work from home, so the baby has to have an area that is safe and entertaining, I made that our great room. His favorite place in the world is the kitchen and all the hazards that go with it. I would look into the size of the opening into your kitchen and invest in a strong and attractive gate blocking the whole kitchen if you can. This alone has been the biggest lifesaver for us. No hurry, your little one won't be scooting around for several months (6+) but you should look for something that will fit and you like.

Also try to find a range without knobs on the front, it will save you a world of trouble, knobs on the counter or above the range go a long way to keep kiddie fingers away.

Figure out where you will keep your cleaning/chemicals NOW. They shouldn't be in a bottom cabinet, and with a reno you have a chance to make a dedicated space that is convenient for you and WAY out of the hands of little ones. (we actually put a separate cabinet that matches the kitchen right outside the door into the mudroom/ laundry room for all cleaning supplies, this is really the only cabinet I have to have a lock for and as my boy gets bigger I can have him in the kitchen with me without worry while the cleaning supplies are locked away!!)

On the other end make a dedicated "baby cabinet" with all your older Tupperware, wooden spoons, ect. This keeps my little guy happy for long periods of time and I get to direct him to "his cabinet" and generally he stays out of the others.

With very little ones, personally I wouldn't put a low MW in, I have nightmares of gnarled plastic and other disfigured objects but maybe I am not giving the kid enough credit.

I think doing it now, rather than when the baby is up and about is smart. But be very sure to safe guard you and the baby during demo. Our whole family got sick and I really think it had a lot to do with all the dust and debris. I think your house is beautiful, good luck, and congrats!!!

I was so excited about the baby, I forgot to look at your house photos! It's GORGEOUS!!!!!!

Congrats

I echo the advice about knob placement. Induction is a great surface when you have a baby around, but do it if you like it, not only for that reason.

Do not plan on bar stools unless you don't mind them gone for a few years. We put ours away when our boys were in the perpetual climbing stage.

I think your kitchen is actually pretty decent. I'd go with new counters, back splash and knobs and call it a day. You will be quite busy soon enough and the kitchen will not be a priority for a while again. You can always swap out appliances as needed.

Congrats!! I was in the same situation when we bought our house.

One thing I did that was super handy was to have an upper cabinet for bottles, bottle drying racks, and the bottle warmer right by the sink and dishwasher. I felt like I was in a perpetual state of cleaning bottles and pump equipment, so it was so nice to have a convenient spot to tuck it all away. Now that my son has moved on to sippy cups, all of that is in the same cabinet.

I also had a cabinet where he could feel free to pull everything out and play, mostly tupperware and things like that. Very useful.

My last and best advice to you is to be sure to replace the things that are really bothering you, as this may just be magnified when caring for a newborn. We had a crappy dishwasher and a barely working oven, and I'm so happy we replaced those right away. That top-rack only wash option on my Bosch dishwasher was a lifesaver.

Congratulations and best wishes for an easy delivery and a healthy baby!

I wanted to mention that many new cooking appliances have childsafe "lockout" features -- our GE stove has one, as do many microwaves, and fridges with ice/water door dispensers almost always do. You might also consider a dishwasher with the buttons inside the top of the door, rather than on the outside of the door. (I haven't paid attention, so dishwashers might have childsafe lockouts too.)

I second the suggestion of designating one lower cabinet or drawer for sippy cups, plastic bowls, etc. My daughter is almost 10 and she still saves some favorite items in a bottom drawer in our kitchen, along with a small chef's hat and an apron!

Caveat: I don't have children, but....if you fall for a stove or cooktop with the knobs on the front, they come off very easily. Keep the knobs on the countertop and put them on when you need them. By the time the child figures this out, (s)he'll be old enough to have learned to be safer in the kitchen.

I have a nyc galley kitchen and I do think I did put a gate up at the entry on occasion when I was cooking meals. But I certainly did not use it all the time. I also had a lower cupboard which I let the kids open and go into, often while I was cooking, to keep I them busy. It had cheaper revere pots and mixing bowls and I would hand them plastic spatulas to play with too.

What I did not do is put locks on anything in the kitchen. I think that is overkill. I also have a gas range with knobs they could reach as soon as they could stand but never had a problem.

Keep in mind that when they are little you really cannot leave them unattended (this is true!) so they should never be in the kitchen (or anywhere else) without an adult present and supervising.

If you have an open layout I suggest getting a playpen (like a pack and play) and keeping it out as soon as they are mobile. This way when you get busy and cannot watch them carefully you can put the baby/toddler somewhere safe for a few minutes without having to watch them as carefully.

I'll never forget when I left my daughter on a play mat in the living room and was in the kitchen cooking dinner (figuring she was happily watching sesame street and playing on her mat) when I heard her screaming. She couldn't properly crawl yet but had managed to scoot herself BACKWARD and ended up stuck UNDER THE COUCH!

Neither of my kids ever got hurt in our very unchildproof kitchen!

Congratulations on your baby! How exciting!!

You've been given good advice! My kids are 5 and 3 so I've been through the baby stage and I've had several different kitchens while my kids were babies. Definitely a low drawer with safe play stuff for a baby and then when he/she gets a bit older, a drawer for their own sippies and snack cups and wipes. Now at 5 and 3 in my kitchen, my kids have a low drawer with all this stuff and we also have a microwave drawer. So they can heat their own food, get a drink of water, or get a wipe to clean themselves up. It's great! Also, in my pantry, I have a 36 inch height shelf that has cereal and snacks that they can help themselves to

RE: babyproofing. I did not lock any of my cabinets or drawers in the kitchen. My kids were not into getting into cabinets and things and I didn't leave them alone anyway when they were itty bitty. But I have seen kids that just can't leave doors and drawers alone, so you might just want to wait and see how your kiddo is before you start locking all the cabinet doors. IMHO. :)

Have fun with your growing family and new kitchen!

Congrats! I don't know if you already have kids -- I don't see toys scattered about, so I'm thinking not. The years will pass by soooooo quickly (I say this as DD and friends are driving to the beach. YIKES!)

You've gotten great advice above. Ditto. I see according to your plans that you are getting a large, single bowl sink. That was going to be my next suggestion. It is WONDERFUL for not only baby bathing, but toddler as well. In fact, we moved out of our first house when our daughter was 5. Her last bath was in the kitchen sink -- we had a stepstool that she would just climb on into the sink. My DH has a bad back, and this allowed him to help with bathtime.

The next suggestion I have is outside your house. Please get a childproof fence installed around it. Please also consider clicking on the following link for Infant Swimming Resource, for infant safety around pools. We did this for our kids and it was one of the best parenting decisions we made.

Let us know about the baby!
Best wishes on getting this kitchen DONE before the baby comes!

Here is a link that might be useful: infant swimming resource

We babyproofed for our older son and considered him pretty inquisitive. When our next guy came along, we thought we had it covered. That is until the day he opened the oven and used the door as a step up onto the stove when I helped the older guy hurry to the potty (training days). I came down the stairs a minute or 2 later to see him helping himself to our upper cabinets. I'd go with being careful before they show you what you missed......

Congratulations on all the work you've done so far and on your baby!

I'm not a layout expert, but I had few initial thoughts...
Is the island to be for prep work?
If so, would you consider having a prep sink in the island?
Is the countertop overhang on the island for stool seating? It seems that is where the cook would want to be to do the prep work.

BTW, I think your house is beautiful!

I just want to say for the record that, no you can't leave your baby and toddlers alone and unattended (and I do not!) but there are moments that you will have your eyes off of them and a baby gate is made to safely keep them away from areas of the house where they can get hurt. If anyone here says they never left the room to put a load of laundry in, to change the sheets in another room, to answer an email or a telephone, or run to the bathroom quickly they are lying. Safety first, but there are times when a baby gate or a locked cabinet is worth a pound of prevention!

Thanks everyone for your compliments on our house and your congrats on the baby! We are very excited for this baby - its been a long time coming!!! Same with our house  weÂve been working on it for 2 years. We had been doing a bunch of things ourselves taking down all the wallpaper, painting the entire house, leveling the subfloors, ripping out all the old carpet, reconfiguring our master closets, opening up the walls between the kitchen and great room as well as hiring out for all new hardwood upstairs, refinishing the downstairs hardwood, getting a pool/spa put in, new landscaping, irrigation/ outdoorlighting, repiping the house with new tankless water heater, gutting and redoing the master bath. I have to post before and after pics sometime  the house always had good bones but boy was it dated. The kitchen is the last major project  of course there are other little projects left Âlike the babyÂs room which I havenÂt even started furnishing/decorating .

Anyhow youÂve all given me such great ideas for ways to make the kitchen safer and more user friendly when the little one arrives.

Rookie-2010 thanks!! Congrats to you too on your new house! Love love your kitchen!! Have you moved in yet?

alwayssunshine I will definitely start looking for a large gate(s). We actually have two openings between the kitchen and the great room (there is another smaller one on the right). There used to be pocket doors where the large opening is and stationary glass doors where to smaller one is but we decided to open it up and really looks so much better (but I can see how it make things harder when the baby is mobile). I have been hoping for a gas range but if we canÂt vent it we might have to go with a cooktop on the island again which would have knobs on the top. Or if we get a range we might do what withoutanh suggested and take the knobs off if the baby shows interest in playing with them.

Sadiebrooklyn thanks for the tip about the pack and play. Judging from how DH and I are I am betting weÂll have an inquisitive baby.

dianalo we have thought about just doing a facelift on this kitchen but I really have my heart set on a new layout and better cabinets (they are really beat up when you see them up close). We ended up doing a facelift in the kitchen in our previous house after spending a year planning a gut renovation and my husband promised me IÂd get to remodel the next one - so we bought this house specifically because weÂd get to redo it. As onecatonedog said I think things will bother me more after the baby comes and IÂd rather try to get it all done before if we can.

rjr220 we are planning on a single large sink  although still deciding whether to do farmhouse or undermount. I hadnÂt thought about bathing the baby in it but I have certainly used it to rinse the dog on more than one occasion so that makes sense I guess! I far as the pool we have to install a bunch of things  we are planning on a pool alarm as well as door alarms and exterior doors with hardware mounted higher than little babies reach  we also have magnalatches already on the backyard gates.

Rexroat yes I plan to use the island for prep  the way I have been using it is I stand facing away from the sink. Not sure if weÂll be able to add a prep sink at this point - we just repiped the whole house and didnÂt include one. The island shape in those drawings is not really finalized  I just know I donÂt want the same shape we have now  so IÂd be open to suggestions about that.

Thanks again everyone!

One thing I thought I'd mention is how often I used the insta hot when mine were babies. I mixed it with cold water to make warm formula, used it to rinse out bottles, sanitized the countertops - you name it. A good dishwasher with sanitize setting and place to put binkies and other small baby items is a lifesaver too.

Congratulations on your holiday baby!! We started planning for this remodel (more than just kitchen) a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant with DD. For a couple of months we considered trying to push to get it all done before baby, but decided to wait as we also have a preschooler, DH works a lot, and our garden was being featured on the county master gardener's tour that same year. DD is now 11 months old and we're finally starting. My advice would be to try to get as much done as possible before the baby. Life get soooooo much busier with baby. Plus, you'll be exhausted from lack of sleep. And post-partum hormones???? Forget it!! You're not crazy for wanting to do this now! Even simple tasks take longer to accomplish when you have a baby.

I echo the others advice about the sippy cups, bowls, and other utensils in a low cab or drawer. Your son (or is it daughter????) will be able to get his own items later. Wait and see how adventerous/mischevious your crawler is before you get a baby gate or playpen. I have never used a gate or playpen in the five years I've had kids. We put a couple of baby locks on kitchen cabs (ones with cleaning supplie and small appliances) and one on the hall bathroom, but that's it. DS seemed to somehow know what was his to play with and what wasn't. DD is a bit more into checking everything out, but she's not in the kitchen if I'm not. Adult supervision is the key.

Now that our highchair is out and in constant use, I'm reminding myself to make sure new kitchen has a good spot for DD to sit in it while I cut up the rest of her food. Maybe it's bad planning on my part, but I always feel like I'm standing in the kitchen cutting food into bite-size pieces, gently warming something from fridge, etc, while she sits in the chair screaming because I'm not shoveling the food onto her tray fast enough. It looks like you have plenty of room to wheel a highchair around from prep area to table and back to kitchen for cleaning off.

If your DW has a sanitary cycle, remember that as soon as you touch whatever was in it, it's not sanitary any longer.

Keep us posted on your progress!

brittu thanks for chiming in! We definitely want to get the instant hot/cold water dispenser. I would love specific recommendations if anyone has them.

Breezygirl thanks for sharing your experience! You you make me feel better about trying to do this now. I am definitely feeling overwelmed right now trying to finalize all the decisions as we are ordering our cabinets on Thu. There are moments that my hormores take over and I start doubting my choices and I want to just give up and wait till later but DH like you thinks things will only get worse after the baby is here.

I will try to post some more pics of our proposed layout/choices and it would be so helpfull to hear everyone's comments on it!

Congratulations on this exciting time. Honestly, I know you want to remodel now, but if this is a house you'll be in for years to come, I'd wait until after the first year or so. When remodeling, all the dust, dirt etc can't be good for you and the growing baby, and you'll find that as your further along, it will become more uncomfortable for you. What if you're not done when the baby comes along? Do you really want to come home to a mess and noise with a newborn? I remodeled my kitchen when my first was 2 yrs old (and believe me my cabinets and layout were alot worse. My fridge was in another room!) and I'm glad I did. I can't conceive of having gone through all that while the baby was on the way or new, especially since he didn't sleep the first year! (Now at 22, he sleeps all the time...grrrrrr!) As for what to think of, you've gotten some great advice. I do think induction is the way to go btw.

I would if you get all my ducks in a row. Plan the kitchen out, find the cabinets, figure out everything now while you have the time and then take a hiatus until after that first year at least. Then when you're ready to put in the new kitchen, all you have to do is order everything you already picked, and have it done.