The Gates of Heaven

I asked for help about a month ago. What should I do with this gate? I even gave an update a few weeks ago about progress that had been made. Did it all happen as quickly as I would have liked? Oh no. But you know what? It was worth the wait.

This gate is pretty serious stuff. And I don’t miss the fake animal blood at all.

Of course, we couldn’t spend a ton of time and energy making a new gate without making it water-proof so it can stand up to our crazy Arizona weather. And by water-proof, I am hoping it also means sun-proof. We get a heck of a lot more sun that rain in these parts.

We were looking for a way to protect it from the elements. After lots of research, we discovered that deck sealant would work wonders to protect the wood and stain.

By the way, please remember that every time the word “we” appears in this post, it is really all “Hubby.” I helped when I could, but he did about 103% of the manual labor necessary to redeem this gate from a its awful, gloomy life.

Hubby did most of the work while I was away at work. He is so patient with my projects and always works hard on them to make me happy. Is he a good Hubby or what?

 

We ended up replacing about twelve boards that were beyond repair. Next, Hubby sanded them all down and attacked them with tack cloth to get rid of any residual dust.

It was then time to stain, but the plan to use the already-have-it walnut stain from our desk project failed when the stain looked way too dark.

In fact, we thought the stain looked more like black paint on the treated pine wood. And not in a good way. So off to Ace Hardware we went to find a lighter version. We chose a pretty stain that turned out so well!

After everything was sanded, tack-clothed, stained, and sealed, it was time to drill, drill, drill. We needed to add new holes to put the new screws inside to hold them to the newly-painted iron frame. So many steps in a gate renovation!

But it was worth all of our Hubby’s work. I absolutely love it. What a difference it makes to have the gate finished and lookin’ good.

We’ve noticed that the neighbors are willing to wave to us again as they drive past. It was sketchy there for a few weeks while these boards were removed. All the world could see our side alley. And it twasn’t pretty, y’all.

Please allow me a victory dance. For Hubby. Because he did all of this!

 

Not biased in the least here, people. Do you remember what this gate looked like before! This is a slightly massive improvement!

I think it turned out rather well. It looks like a brand-new gate, for less than $60. It would have been about $7 cheaper, but cans of stain tend to get spilled at our house during intense projects. It’s practically unavoidable.

Hubby says he might as well start buying two containers when he gets one, because one will inevitably end up on the floor.

No gate in this shot, but I accidentally took a picture of our house while doing some gate shots. I need to update my house pictures to reflect the changes that have been made in the almost-two-years since we bought it. Look for some updates on this page in the very near future. Can you believe we’ve been homeowners for almost two years?!

Yeah. Me, neither. At least the gate is a welcoming item now and not something to chase people away. Maybe it will keep out those darn feral neighborhood cats?