Baby Gate Weekend

Normally installing a baby gate would not be a big deal. Certainly not something that should take all weekend. Those who know me understand that this is not something out of the ordinary.

This is not because I'm unskilled or generally don't know what I'm doing, I just have a knack for finding some, shall we say, "convoluted" ways of getting things done?

Checking out Dad's Handywork

 I defend my track record by pointing out that it takes me a little longer to get things done sometimes just because I want things "just so". Sure, I could have gone out and bought the cheapest gate available, propped in the space, and been done with it. But I'm not about "cheap" and I care about function and aesthetics.

I wanted a gate that was designed for a "top of stairs" location, was a "swing gate" style, that looked nice when it was installed, and would span a 54" opening. I managed to find one that met the first three criteria, but not the fourth. I figured that we would get the gate and I would have some carpentry work ahead of me.

It's the amount of carpentry work that took me the duration of the weekend. And several trips to "Bellingham Millwork" for lumber and parts.

Basically, the gate was designed for a 52" space (max) and I needed to span a 54" space. Plus, the bottom of the gate could be no higher than 3" above the floor. This means that I need to build out from the wall, then extend a piece of support below since the floor moulding is 4" tall. Also, the wall on the side of the stairs opposite the exterior wall did not extend far enough to meet up squarely with where the gate need to be installed on the exterior wall. So this required extending that piece of the wall.

So, on the exterior wall I screwed a 2×4 to a 1×4, painted it to match the wall color, and then used eight medium duty drywall screws to attach that to the wall. Eight is likely overkill, but I don't want a structural failure in my construction.

On the other side I made a similar assembly of 2×4 attached to a 1×4 to extend the wall length. To close the gap I used a 2×2 cedar post. With all this in place I was able to follow the directions that came with the gate to made a sturdy, yet attractive, barrier to my son going down the stairs.

This gate actually works very nicely and can be easily removed from the hinge when it's not needed.

The multiple trips to the hardware store came about because I had originally intended to make the supports from oak and stain it to match the gate. When I got those pieces home, I realized it was going to be much simpler just to do this with regular lumber and paint it to match the walls. I also needed to make a couple of trips to get right kind of screws. I underestimated how this the board combination *plus* the drywall thickness was going to be.

Ah well, it's up now, looks good and will hold up for the next couple of years.