Monday, June 13, 2011

The gate is coming along again

Steve finally found some time to get back to the fence this past weekend.  On Saturday he went full speed ahead but well, on Sunday, he got distracted and efforts went towards making the backyard entertaining ready. This week he plans to figure out what other pieces of wood he needs to complete the fence and I hope to get the cedar store on Thursday when I am without babe. 

Now we just need to pick up one more wheel since this fence is one big dude and is H-E-A-V-Y.  Also need to research some fence hardware to lock/open/close it since I am definitely not in like at all with the stuff at Home Depot.  I would really like something that allows us to open and close it from each side without having to do the little string rig up deal-e-o that you see on many simple gates. 
put on the first hinge without a problem

this is where the problem arose; Steve had to drill out the ground bracket in order to mount the lower hinge on top of the bracket....what a pain but ended up being a pretty easy fix

drilling a support bracket

and the gate goes up

you can so the spring/wheel hardware on the left side of the pix; getting ready to drill on the wheel

wheel #1-to put a second wheel on the other side to hold this big sucker up
there is about a 1/8" clearance on the ground with just one wheel attached
And another look at the gate (yes, we still have that huge pile of compost that we need to finish spreading)
We also made a trip to Mr. Plywood on Stark and found these fence post caps...I was eye-ing the beefier post caps, however, they don't work (And are at least $10 a pop more) as they will not fit with the clearance between the gate and the fixed posts and where the fence posts connects with the garage.  We simple need to level out all the posts and attach these toppers with a little construction adhesive.


And Steve's backyard progress...
Steve removed the rest of the pavers and small rubble and readied the area for some sod....lovely mud pit right now and my clean, mopped floors are already covered in doggy prints-motivation to get some sod STAT!


Steve added dug up portland potatoes rocks around the new bench and filled on with pebbles to cut down on dirt and mess

added more dig up rock around these pots which we plan to fill with Bamboo (more on that endeavor soon)
this is just funny as all these tall flowers sprouted out of nowhere and we kinda have a forest in the NW corner of our yard

3 comments:

  1. Nice looking fence. Good job! And your flowers are lovely.

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  2. Hiya, we've decided we also want to put the fence on the side of the house and we need to build a big gate across the driveway. Did you guys just wing it? Or did you know how to build such a thing? I'm trying to find resources to help us get a clue about materials and process. Thanks!

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  3. Hi Sharon,
    Steve and I did a bunch of research online and found out a couple things that seem to make the biggest difference in a sturdy gate.
    1. attach your posts securely into the ground-we used the brackets that we cemented in
    2. get sturdy hinges that can accommodate the size of your gate-this was again a big expense but our gate is huge and heavy so we are glad we made the investment
    3. get a good spring/wheel to help it roll-we had to modify ours a bit (to post soon) but now it works really well
    Hope that helps!

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