Gated security

A few years ago, a very good friend of mine had his fence built on contract. The Contractor was installing the fence for the whole neighbourhood and wanted to charge $300.00 for a gate. That cost is about the going rate for gates, but when I saw the span he wanted to build it for, I knew it was not going to be the right type of gate construction.

So, I advised my friend not to have the gate built and save his money. A few weeks ago I was tasked to complete the gate for him. While my day job is designing and consulting for my many clients... I do have a background in construction and woodworking. So I fired up the old tools and got busy....

The original contractor plan was a gate that was well over 4 feet wide. The issue was the width of that gate was not needed and would almost certainly fail in a few years. Any type of gate constructed over 42 inches wide would require metal brackets for the corners and a beefed up structural design. I knew for the price quoted he would not get that... so we shortened the area by putting in an extra post and I built a beefed up gate anyway...

Double fence board construction...sandwiched a 2 x 4 frame that included metal braces to give the gate extra strength. 10 inch hinges were used to hang this heavy door up. Yes, the construction is solid enough to lose the term standard outdoor gate...and call it an outdoor ...door!

The gate does not bounce or twist as you open it... it swings nicely on the hinges and locks up securely from the inside of the yard which provides added security to the yard as it cannot be opened from the outside. That was a request made to me by the homeowner!

Spring 2009... time to start the landscape season!

Well...after a long and drawn out winter season and a bit of a relapse in the beginning of April, I think we are on the upswing now for Spring weather!

I am glad because it means that we can now get projects that were started last year...underway in terms of construction. I am also glad because I can get out to see my new clients and measure up their properties without treading through snow!

A monumental task....

Back in the summer of 2008 I was asked to assist the Curve Lake First Nations People in a community park project. In the center of their community sits a cenotaph stone dedicated to the people of their community who lost their lives in WW1, WW2 and Korea....

I was asked to design and organize the surrounding park area into a properly functioning space for annual community events. The place to start was with the monument itself!

After speaking with the committee, I got the sense of what they were looking for in terms of the monument. I decided to give it a better height and reposition it so that the face of the stone pointed in the right direction (facing the main entrance). The committee then told me that the monument was to sit in a medicine wheel with the red, white, yellow and black colours displayed in a proper order.

The Chief of Curve Lake requested to me that the base of this monument be made to last a couple hundred years or so... I designed it to be at least 6 inches thick with re-bar set in and also to have some foundation piers that go below frost.

The end result looks much like the concept drawing I did. The project is still in progress so the finished park will have to be photographed in the coming year...

I look forward to continue working with the people of Curve Lake on this project!