Memorial Day Flag

On my list of things I hoped to get done this spring/summer/fall/maybe-winter were a few bigger item dealies. I wanted to build and seed a garden box in my backyard (check). I wanted to get screens for all of my-non-screened windows (uh, no). I wanted to put down wood floors in my living room (uh- that won’t happen soon). And I wanted to replace the decrepit gates guarding my backyard.

Yesterday, the third day of the long Memorial Day weekend, I was grateful to have my dad offer to help me take care of a huge chunk of my last wish. My dad came over and helped me build and hang a gate to replace the main one used to enter the yard.

Part of his offer was the result of duress.

Both gates on each side of the house had been discolored from rusting hardware, and after seemingly 1000 years of baking in the New Mexico sun, the white paint covering each wood assembly was blistering, peeling, and receding. And after an infrequent use just three weeks ago, the bolts on the main gate’s lower hinge literally pulled out of the gate’s wood and left the gate closeable and upright only by locking its latch to the house-side post. Otherwise, the gate was only being held up by the failing top hinge.

The old gate.

I asked my dad if he’d help me replace the thing, and like the great Dad he is, he said “Sure!”

So Monday morning at 10, Dad came over with a Blake’s burrito for each of us, and we sat down to plan out the new gate, which was to be in design similar to the one he had made for his backyard. Earlier that morning, after a weekend of cool temps and regular drizzles, I felt optimistic that we’d get through, perhaps, the cutting and painting of the pieces. As the day moved forward, I realized, after we brought the materials home from Lowe’s, this thing might even get done today.

Lowe’s time.

And so we reviewed the plan, and then started first by shaping the tops of the gate panel boards. I then cut the 2×4’s to length for each of the backing frame pieces, while he started painting. After the cutting was done, I joined him in painting the wood.

Pop paints the slats.

Considering the frame.

And soon we were assembling the pieces- first the frame, and then attaching the front boards to the frame. We ran into a few issues. One was that each of us was suffering from some lower back issues. Getting up and down was a trial for each of us. We also ended up having a front panel 1×6 that, despite our eyeballing it in the store, came home and was heavily warped. Laid flat on the ground, the thick side actually bowed out to the right three-quarters of an inch. We attached it last to the gate, as one of the edge slats, but it took me crating a cinch using two belts wrapped around the gate top and me pulling on the loose end coming through the buckle to almost square it up. Even then, the bowed slat pulled away from the other slats after being nailed down.

A gate.

By 5, the gate was constructed and mostly painted, and with plenty of sun left and some coolness in the air, Dad asked if I wanted to hang it. “That would be awesome,” I replied. He said “I’d hate to think I came over here and didn’t get to help you put this thing up.”

So we went around the house, looked at the old gate, and as he surveyed it for best demolition practices, I put a hammer up to the top hinge to pry it from the would, and immediately the hinge bolts gave. The door lurched forward, held up only by the locked latch.

Once we got the old gate (which certainly came from the Spanish inquisition era) off the posts, we then removed a buffering 4″ post and its 2×4 buddy from the left side where the old gate was mounted. We then tried the new gate in the empty gateway, and behold!- our measurements had been pretty good. It fit.

We spent until 8 lifting and mounting the gate in place and modifying and painting it to correct some opening and closing issues, and then to clean it up.

Becoming hinged.

A new gate.

At 8, some stiffness was setting in, and the gate was up, doing what it was supposed to do all by itself, looking happy in its new home.

I thanked my Dad humbly and said, “Yes, by all means, please go home- you’ve helped me so much today.” And as the sun dropped, after he left I leisurely admired our work while I cleaned up around the garage and in the back yard.

The work was made pretty easy because he brought over his chop saw, which was actually his brother Billy’s before he got it. That saw has been in the family quite a while.

I also learned about #1, #2, and #3 screw driving heads for the drill. We were having major problems using a #2 head to try and drive a #3-sized screw.

And so one of the two gates is done. The new gate is lighter and shinier, and actually doesn’t drag on the concrete walk. The second gate I never use, and right now it is blocked from use in the backyard by a jungle of rose branches. That one may stay where it is for a bit.

Or at least until I do try to use it and a hinge falls off.

Thanks, Pop, for helping me get that item off of my list. It was a great deal, a great experience, and a great time. With my great Pa.