These days, it feels like I have to choose between blogging, and doing, and lately I’ve been choosing doing. Thus no blog posts. But prepare yourself for one very satisfying before-and-after. I made a gate! Two, technically. I had never built a gate before, but go big or go home, right?

This is a project that I’ve been meaning to get around to doing for literally years. Our house has an alley behind it, which our detached garage backs up to. The beat-up chain link fence and gate to our back alley were here when we bought the house, and though it is durable and affordable, chain link is not my cup of tea.

This is the view from our backyard. Often our neighbors’ cars are parked back there, and because of the slight slope, when they drive in or out, their headlights shine right in our back window. Since we got an electric car a few months ago, we often park it behind the garage to charge. All that is to say that the view is not something we will miss.

What really got me motivated to finally build a new gate was the lack of privacy. One day a month or so ago, Steven and I were talking in the kitchen one morning, and I held up a drawing Juniper had done for him to look at. He looked past me, out the back window, and said, “There’s someone in our yard.” I looked out and saw a guy walking out with Juniper’s folding wagon that we kept by the back door. So I knocked on the window, yelled, “Hey, you can’t take that!” and we both went out to stop him. He apologized and said that he thought we were getting rid of it. Yeah, right.

Here’s the view from the alley:

(Yeah, our house/yard/garage exterior need some work. And can we talk about the color yellow? I think the former owner had a fetish for it. Most of the rooms inside were also painted yellow when we moved in. We can’t repaint the exterior because it’s vinyl siding–but we’re getting it removed soon!)

We figured that if someone really wants to get into the yard, they can, but a tall, solid gate at the back would be the best way to deter someone walking by from noticing something in the yard and just strolling in and taking it.

Multiple times I had drawn up plans to finally build a new gate, but now I finally had the motivation, and it was just the right time of year. I don’t really want to work outside when it’s raining and cold, but doing hard labor when it’s blazing hot and the dry ground is as hard as cement didn’t sound great, either. Early spring was the perfect time though! Not too cold, but the ground was still wet and (relatively) soft. So I got to work.

I decided to build a double gate so that if we ever needed to get anything wider than one side into the yard, we’d have the option of opening both gates. Plus, symmetry! But one side can’t open to the alley because of the giant laurel bush, and the other side can’t open to the inside because of the slope of the yard and the garage. So the right side opens in, and the left opens out, with the left side fixed in place with a drop rod. And I wanted an arbor on top to help stabilize the posts and add a spot for the unruly climbing rose to grow.

Steven and I dug out the old gate posts, and then I dug holes for new ones. Since I was building a double gate, I “only” needed to dig two 12-inch-wide-by-36-inch-deep post holes. Even though I borrowed my dad’s post-hole digger, it was exhausting work digging out that much clay soil, especially squished up next to the bush. But I did it! And then we set the 10-foot posts.

I don’t like the look of pressure-treated wood, so I used cedar for everything visible. For protection from rot, my neighbor donated some post wraps he had left over from his fencing project, and there are 6-inches of gravel at the bottom of the holes. Plus I coated the submerged bottoms of the posts in roofing tar at the recommendation of the guy I was ordering from at Parr Lumber.

Nobody sponsored this in any way, so here’s my honest experience with Parr Lumber. I don’t have a big enough car for the lumber, so I was going to order everything for delivery from Home Depot, but when I went to put in my order, it was going to be two weeks before they could deliver everything, plus a $79 delivery fee. So I went to Parr Lumber and got a quote, which was cheaper, and included free delivery like two days later. Plus the guy putting in my order had helpful suggestions (though he told me I only needed 1 1/2 bags of cement per hole, so 3 total, and I ended up having to go buy 6 more.). I did buy the hinges and latch and extra cement from Home Depot, and some screws and the stain came from Lowes.

I took more pictures of the process, but basically, I built two frames out of pressure-treated lumber, then covered them on both sides with fence boards. And then I stained everything, and hung the gates.

Sounds easy, right? I’m leaving out the part where I re-measured the opening, then had to take the frames apart and cut them down by 3/4″. And when I had trouble deciding how to get a nice concave shape at the top. Oh and also my obsessive struggle to get the middle opening as even as possible and the latch and hinges lined up perfectly. The whole thing took me about two weeks, which was about twice as long as I’d planned. But it was so worth it!

Our backyard feels so much more private. It’s like an outdoor room now. The double gate is about six feet tall and the ground slopes back toward the alley, so anyone walking by would have to really try to see inside. We could even put a padlock on it if we want to.

Nothing to see here!

Plus the view from the inside is much nicer. I can’t stop admiring it. It’s got me planning even more upgrades for the outside of my house–will this be the year the exterior finally catches up to the interior?