Dog Run Gate

                One day probably around the end of June, I decided I wanted to price the materials that would be needed for the dog run gate.  I had used Lowes’ online calculator a while back and scratched down that information on to a random envelope that I carry in my purse (it also has info about creating a front walk way). Well we were in luck; their deck railing section was on sale for $10 (usually over $30)! You may be asking yourself “deck railing? I thought they were looking for gate materials.”  Well we decided that it would be way cheaper to get two of these deck sections and figure out later how to make a gate out of it, if all else failed we could have unassembled it for the materials.  For the life of me I can’t think of what we were there for, but we each grabbed a rail section (we had no cart because we weren’t planning on getting anything big) and headed to the check out.  That night we found out just how long something can be and still fit in Neill’s Altima with the backseats folded down—6 feet, whew.  

                The next night we went back for the rest of the materials for the gate:

• 2 6 feet long 4x4 posts (just the right length for my RAV4)

• Gate hardware (4 hinges, latch, cane)

• 4 bags of Quickcrete (I later returned 2)

Because we didn’t have a post hole digger and didn’t want to shell out the money for one, these materials got to hang out in the RAV4 for a few weeks.  Thankfully Neill’s wonderful grandparents had a post hole digger that we could borrow, so the next time Neill’s brother came to visit (close to mid/ end of July) he brought it to us.

                Now we had everything we needed to get this gate built.  I had decided that because I only wanted to have to buy 2 posts instead of more we were going to have two gates, one on each side that meet in the middle.  Currently I have no classes and only have to put in 20 hours at the Navy. So one day I came home in the afternoon and decided I would start figuring out where we would dig the post holes.  Of course this meant to me start digging one of the post holes. It is really hard to dig a hole so close to your house. I only got about a foot dug out and decided to go inside and take a break. Later when Neill got home, I wanted to show him my work so I brought him outside showed him the hole and began to show him how hard it was. Yes this was tricky of me; I got us to dig another couple of inches before Neill wanted to go back inside.  Later that evening around 10ish I realized that I had left the post hole digger outside and I didn’t want it to get rusty, so I went out to put it in the garage. Of course that hole was calling my name so I decided I would dig a little more until I became tired.  Well just about the time I was tired Neill decided to join me and finished digging the 2 foot hole. Tip: Use a sharpie marker to mark your (or your in-laws’) post hole digger every foot from the bottom so you can quickly see how deep your hole is.

                 I was so surprised to hear Neill ask if I wanted him to grab the Quickcrete. I guess there was no reason not to go ahead and set that post that night. Yes it was 10:30 PM on a week night, but we decided to finish the task. The next day I dug and set the other post and marked where the deck railing needed to be cut before Neill got home.  When he got home we cut the railing and using the hinges hung them from each of the posts. We used some of my yarn to give us a guiding line.  We used two different types of hinges - a set that closes automatically and a normal set (both looking the same). We didn’t think about how the automatic ones were so much stronger than the normal ones, and when we pulled out the brick we had holding the gate while we attached the hinges to the post the gate on the normal hinges sagged a little. Oh well, we got the hardware on and called it a night. I have a few ideas of how to fix this problem, but that will be another day. We were able to get a gate up in two weekday evenings, defiantly one of the quickest projects yet.