DarqByte

So recently, my Dad and I built a wooden gate for Laura’s & my dog, Pepper. We had this older, plastic & metal gate that is mass-produced. It was kinda old and has some rust on it, and was digging into the paint in the walls where we kept it, so I decided we needed a new one.

This turned out to be a longer and more expensive project than I anticipated. The wood from Lowe’s was more expensive than I thought it was going to be and I had to buy some other things, such as wood filler, stain and sealant for the wood, a saw to cut the wood (which didn’t really end up getting used), some hooks to hang the gate on for when it wasn’t down, etc.

In any case, I started it here at our place and got to a roadblock — I had to to countersunk screws and hadn’t done it before, so I thought I was messing things up. That and I didn’t really have all of the requesite tools necessary for a project like this. A hand saw and a low-level drill. Yay. My design for the gate was also slightly off.

So my Dad and I teamed up 2 weekends ago to start it properly at his place, where he’s got tools galore. We cut the wood pieces down to size and also managed to get the rails, as I’m calling them, constructed. All I had to do was stain and seal them that week here at home. The rails are the side pieces that the gate itself slides into and keeps it in place.

This last weekend, my Dad finished up the gate while I was at work on Friday, so I brought it home and stained and sealed it too. I installed the rails and slid the gate down, and voila! It worked like a charm. I installed the two hooks on to the back of our laundry door, but they couldn’t go in the whole way and were pulled down. Today I removed them from the door and attached them to the wall behind it, which worked. Now the door has the backs of two anchors in it and I had to use wood filler to fix the holes. Doesn’t look quite as nice, but nobody’s going to see it back there. I may also eventually be able to “sculpt” a better-looking fix someday since I’ve got wood filler and all.

I ended up putting rubber pads on the bottom of the gate for it to rest on when slid down to the floor, as well as on the inside of one of the sides which is where the gate hangs from the hooks.

So the gate’s installed! Here are some pictures.

The gate

The rail

The rubber pads