Sunday, October 7, 2012

We are the Greatest Neighbors Ever (The Story of a Gate)

 Before

So let me start with some background.  Our house has a pretty narrow "side yard" on both sides, which are basically just concrete walkways.  One side has a gate, while the other side (the side featured in this post) had a fixed fence.  Both the gate and the fence are sloppily painted bright white, which matches pretty much nothing.  My preference is for wooden fences and gates to be left natural wood colored.

I decided I want a gate on both sides so that I can store my trash cans out of sight.  They have been kept in front of this house for who knows how long.  And that looks trashy, low-class and lazy.

The driveway side of the house had the gate.  I anticipate this being used as a walkway fairly frequently, and it is much too narrow to store the trash cans and still function as a gate, so I needed to create a gate on the other side of the house, where I don't think we will walk so much, therefore it isn't a big deal if the garbage cans take up most of the space.

So we need a gate, and to kill the awful white fence.

It turns out this was an "Inception" fence.  When I took down the first set of boards, I discovered they were build atop the old rotting/termite infested boards (explaining the termites in the house), so we had a fence inside a fence.


Since I'm a cheapskate, I wanted to reuse the newer old boards.  That required a little work with Chrissy's birthday present, the belt sander.

Completed boards.


Demo complete.  Le gap.

Working hard, with cold beer.  This was also the first use of my Black Friday table saw.  Worked like a charm (after 3 hours of assembly and countless swear words).  My brother, David, came over to help out, and drink my beer.


 I made David work while I looked cool with power tools.

Gate frame completed and hung.

Well hung.

It opens...after we did a little adjusting.

Final board added.  You can also see the work Chrissy did with the paint scraper.

Quite an improvement, not only with the look of the fence/gate, but also in removing the garbage cans from the front of our house.  You can see why we are great neighbors--we are making our property nicer for our neighbors to look at, and probably increasing their property values.

Now I just need to talk to my neighbors about hiding their trash cans, which you can clearly see in many of these photos.  I'm sure that will go well.

3 comments:

  1. Your table saw is where it's at. Remember when I sheared off one of the frame bolts? Whoops.

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  2. Very impressive! I would've botched this kind of job for sure. Plus, I love neighbors that make an effort with the outside of their home. Most of my neighbors are are doing the bare minimum.

    Anyhow, I don't know if you guys are planning to repaint the exterior on your own, but if you are looking for painters (interior and exterior), last year I used a great team of guys who are very affordable, clean, quick and nice. I can drop you their number, if you so desire :) Im obviously just catching up on all the posts, but as someone who is constantly fixing up their own home, its nice to see what kinds of projects you are doing and its pretty encouraging and inspirational, I must say. Good luck Pekemas!

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  3. Dave: I remember...

    Kareena: I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. We will be doing the painting ourselves since we are only doing the front of the house for now. When the time comes to do the eaves, in a few years, I will hire someone.
    Fixing up your own house is very satisfying, but so is seeing your friends doing the same. If you ever need any help with a project, David is just a phone call away (plus he will work for nothing more than shitty beer).

    We've got a bunch of posts lined up, so check back soon.

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