Oh No!!

We were so pleased with our new fence, including the two gates that give us access on either side of the house.  The smaller gate would not fit under the eave of the house, so the fence builder worked out a solution to have it close just outside of the eave. Very nicely done, I thought...

The next day, Teri looks up there and says "There isn't enough room for the gutters.".  And sure enough, the gate is so close to the eave that the gutter crew (due in a couple of weeks) would not be able to install the gutter across this area. 

So now what?  I called the fence guy and explained the problem. He said that he'd look into returning the 8' tall gate and replacing it with a 6' tall gate, but the top hinge would have to be cut and re-welded, and it would look odd. And, it would be a couple of weeks until he could get back. 

Teri suggested just cutting off the corner of the gate, but I was concerned that the gate wouldn't remain square. Eventually I decided to see if there was a welding shop nearby that would take this on as a project. I found a couple of candidates, and the closest guy simply texted me back and said "bring it in.". So I did. 

This guy is one of those country fellows in a dim old machine shop built by his grandfather during WWII. Equipment and steel and parts all over the place.  Had a big ol' dog that came out to play and he just gave you the right feeling. 

I was going on and on with my explanation and plan to cut the corner off and weld in a new piece of pipe on a diagonal, when he suggested simply cutting the corner out and "flipping it over". Yep, sounded like a good idea. Took him about 5 seconds to come up with it...

I dropped the gate off at 4:30, and he texted me at 11:00 the next morning to come and pick it up. 

So, for the princely sum of $60 we have a new customized gate, still 8' tall, with plenty of room for a gutter. And I now have "a guy" to go to for this kind of fabrication in the future.

Mark