Gates

It's going to take me a week of posts to get you all caught up on all the projects and progress around here.  Brett does not know how to rest, or pace himself, or do a reasonable amount of work.  Last night I was pretty angry with him.  Every night this week I've come home to a husband who, yes, has accomplished a lot.  But also a husband who is in agony -- carpal tunnel flare ups, aching legs, elbows, you name it.  Today, he promised to be a good boy and rest.  Hahahahaha.  I left work early to start the holiday weekend and caught him carrying boxes of books down the stairs.  He looked at me sheepishly when I caught him red handed with the tractor bucket loaded and a stack of book boxes at the base of the stairs.  He was good about taking breaks the rest of the afternoon and is still functional this evening.  Kerri, if you are reading this please call your dad and give him hell.  :)  We want him to last for many more years -- happy, healthy years.

The main project of this week is the front gate.  The existing front gate was a big, wide, heavy thing.  It was hung on the uphill side of the driveway.  To open the gate, you undid the chain and then swung it up and halfway open.  The gate scraped and then stopped halfway open requiring that we lift it up and walk it the rest of the way.  This wasn't too big of a deal in general but definitely a pain in the neck in my corporate work clothes and heels.  Teetering up the driveway, lugging a big awkward gate is not my idea of a fun way to start and end my day.

We found a guy at the farmers market who makes beautiful automatic gates.  He came out, took a look, and offered us a design that we loved.  The first step was to take out the existing main and pedestrian gates.  The pedestrian gate was useless -- it opened onto the edge of the stream and sprinkler valves were smack in front of the opening.  The process of installing the new gate will take almost two weeks and we couldn't have the dogs roaming the neighborhood during that time.  They went back to jail.

Brett took the pedestrian gate and hung it at the entrance to my garden.  There was no existing gate, just a roll of deer fencing that I shoved out of the way to go into the garden.  It was not going to keep two large, motivated dogs inside.  Now, I have a lovely gate; a real garden gate and entrance.  The dogs are not as thrilled. 

Brett even put a brick ribbon into the area cut out of the driveway to put the wire across.  Brett also put sprinkler lines across so he can run them up either side of the driveway.  The existing sprinkler line was hit by the gate guys' jackhammer so he had to cap it off.  No worries.  Brett is the sprinkler king.

I'm not going to describe the new gate to you; I'll show you pictures when its installed.  It's perfect and I think you are going to love it.