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Exterior I: facade


havanaholly

Finally here's a shot of the outside from the front.

And here's the how-to on making a working gate (it did NOT come with the kit!):

I measured & cut a piece of coathanger wire 1/2" longer than the height of the left edge of the gateway opening and another piece just slightly shorter than the right edge of the opening, and one piece 1/4" shorter than twice the height of the gate in the middle. I carefully measured the longest piece to find the center and bent it at that point in half, being careful to keep the top rounded; I have a wire-bender I used with pliers to do this.

Nest I cut two pieces of skinny craft sticks just slightly less than the width of the gateway and I marked one along the middle of its long axis 1/8" in from each end and equally spaced between in two places for a total of four marks. I then checked the middle two marks against the bent piece of coathanger wire and bent it a wee bit more to fit. I then taped the two pieces of craft sticks together and clamped them down in t vice and drilled the holes through the marks using a bit the same diameter as the coathanger wire; I eyeballed the match, so the wire was a snug fit. I threaded the wire ends through the holes in the sticks as you see, finally standing the wire ends on a hard surface to get them even and then lay the gate against the arch and pulled the left wire down until the end was at least 1/16" below the bottom edge of the gateway, and clamped the ends together in the vice to straighten the craft sticks. Next I spraypainted the whole assembly black.

I drilled a hole in the bottom of the gateway base to receive the lower end of the left wire and laid a bit of masking tape perpendicular to it, sticking out the front. I lay the gate against it and marked the bottom of the interior gateway arch where the upper wire came to mark that hole; I continued this strip of masing tape up the front of the arch next to the wire and on up to the top & back across the top to measure for the hole, and drilled it through. I inserted the left gate wire into the bottom of the arch hole and pushed it up until the bottom of the left wire was clear of the bottom of the gateway, and then I positioned the wire over the bottom hole and pushed it in, and now I have a working gate. Spackle "adobe" covers the hole in the top of the gate arch.

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