The Saga Continues: The Gate, The (almost) Final Chapter

For the last month or thereabouts, our front gate has been annoying me.

First I had to replace the hinges. This did not work, due to the ridiculously small size of the accessible wood and rusty metal frame, I had to buy silly piddly sized hinges. Unsurprisingly, it came off of these hinges. On the bright side, I had to buy some taps to get some dead screws out, and will now forever own taps :)

These are taps - no, not the kind that water comes out of, they are to remove damaged screws.

Next I replaced the hinges with slightly more heavy duty hinges, and used decent treated screws, made for outdoor use in pine. Then the wood totally split and the entire gate became as what we call 'totally shagged'

The gate is currently leaning precariously against the fence post. We can kind of use it, in a pinch, if it is propped up with a brick and latched to the magnetic childproof latch. Not exactly ideal with a 23 month old Red to consider!

Totally fed up, I went to Bunnings the other day (I actually went in for a sheet of plywood for my carpentry class project) and asked what they could sell me in a pre-made gate, as I didn't really think I had the time to make my own. The man at Bunnings wasn't terribly helpful. They didn't have any. He didn't offer me any other options. So I bought my ply and left.

This morning however, I decided I would go and check out what Mitre 10 Mega had to offer me in the pre-made gate department. Sadly the only one they had was 200mm too small. So he suggested I could just buy the palings and some wood and make one. So that is exactly what I did! Well, sort of.

I had him cut the two pieces of wood to size for me (while he did, I introduced Red to a forklift), he then asked if my husband would be able to sort out the crossbearer himself, I laughed and said that my husband would not be going anywhere near it until it was hung in the gap! He smiled and asked if I had a handsaw to cut it myself. I said I did. He then carried it all out to the car for me and suggested I buy 45mm screws, gave me the bit of paper to pay on. I thanked him and he was on his way! Now THAT is what I call service! Just because I am a woman carrying a small child does not mean I don't know how to weald a power tool!

The back of my car, full of wood and Girl Guide biscuits.

So, home after a morning out to entertain Red, when she was in bed, I went and retrieved the wood from my car. I laid it all out on my bedroom floor in the sun, and got to work. I had screwed both end pickets to the two pieces of framing wood and had started laying out the others to work out the space when Mr DIY-impaired left for work. Soon after I had all of the bottom end screwed on. About then Red woke up and got out of bed and came in to project manage for me.

The beginnings of my new, extra-wide gate.

She looked after my other drill (I decided that taking out the battery would make it lighter for her, and would also just make sure she didn't drill anything she oughtn't, like her own hand!) and tried to put a screw in it as a bit while I screwed the other ends of the pickets on.

Trying to put a screw in the chuck

Lighter without the battery in the drill

Red through the gate offering me some of her lunch

I flipped the new gate over and marked where I needed to cut the crossbearer and went to find my handsaw. But wait... who has moved my saw? It isn't where I left it! In fact, it is nowhere to be found! I called the DIY-impaired husband to enquire of its whereabouts. He said 'it's probably in the shed' Ha! Maybe it is, but that shed is such a shitfight, I'm not taking Red in there to help me find it. He says he will go and find it for me tomorrow before he goes to work. We'll see.

All marked and ready to cut, when Mr DIY-Impaired fetches the saw from parts unknown

I'm very pleased with my gate so far, it looks nice, it's rather heavy - I may need to get some bigger more industrial looking hinges, as I fear the others I bought last week are a bit too piddly. We shall see though.