Sunday, July 22, 2007

The Gate

Since we moved into the house, the back gate has creaked loudly and it hangs so low that it scrapes along the sidewalk. It never provided, except for it's sound, a very dramatic entry to the back yard.
Saturday, I tried to remedy some of these things with a back gate renovation. I removed the gate from the hinges, re-oiled the hinges and cut about 2 inches off the bottom. I added a diagonal reinforcement to the gate and also cut a parabolic shape in the top.
It works very well now and no longer does the entire neighborhood know when I am going from the front to the back yard or vice versa. I did have one problem. I did not plan that the gate overlaps the corner post so my parabola looks off-center. In the future, I need to plan these things more carefully. In the coming months I will be adding a pergola/gateway feature above the gate.
While shopping for gate supplies at Lowe's, I noticed that the yard stuff is on sale. I decided to pick up three tiki torches to add to the "white trash ambiance" of the yard. I think the ones I got are a little too nice so they don't really compliment the plastic crap or the see-saw gnome and frog sculpture. At night, the yard does look like an episode of Survivor though and that's pretty cool. The final two pics are just for fun: me playing Martha Stewart (a secret fetish of mine) after cutting back the zinnias. The other is a huge dragonfly that was perched on the leaf of one of our sunflowers.

6 comments:

Our Little Bungalow said...

Ha I knew you were Martha! Knew it!!

Anonymous said...

At least your tikis look metal or "antique-y"...wait a minute...

"White trash city" is what we have...the $2 special, 3-foot-tall bamboo ones. Light up the yard really nicely, but really are white-trashy.

Pretty zinnias too...I'll plant some of those next year. I planted them once before in a previous garden and they were great. Didn't have room this year. But next year, look out!

Anonymous said...

How's the rain barrel working out? We want to install one eventually. Where's a good place to find them?

Chris said...

We got the rain barrels through ebay. They were cheap - 45 bucks each. I bought them from a seller called Irspec. I just checked and it looks like his prices have gone up a bit - what a bummer.

Anonymous said...

YAY Rain Barrels! I am doing that too! Your yard looks great.

Kimberley said...

Hi, there!

Just found your blog, and have really enjoyed your last few entries-- I laughed out loud when I read "disheveled hole" :)

My husband and I live in a tiny 1949 Cape Cod and can relate to many of your experiences. In the past 4 years we've dealt with termite damage, rot, had Hardiplank installed, a couple of new windows... and have sooo much more to do.

Good luck with everything!
Kimberley