The Fence

It started out innocently enough with me thinking, "I really need a fence."

After getting a couple bids, I decided on A&E Gates to make a tandem automatic gate for me.  That was in December 2017 and they were booking 6 months out.  First I had electricity brought out to where the gate motor would be.  I even had 220 added for when I get an electric car.  What I quickly discovered was that the gate guys don't do the fence, just the gate.  And they don't do the electrical, but the electrical guys don't dig trenches, although I was able to convince mine to, and NOBODY wants to do leveling!

So I ever so carefully leveled it, as requested, to be consistent with the grade of the alley.

Then when my neighbor was having some concrete work done he suggested we extend his little wall to prevent gravel from getting in my track.  Great idea Ed!

The workers did a nice job but they put all my gravel back where it was!  They un-leveled it!  Thankfully my neighbor, Ed, did a fantastic job at re-leveling it for me since I had hand surgery and it was hard enough to do the first time.

Then the guys from A&E Gates came and made way for the track.  I'm not sure our careful leveling really made much of a difference when I saw how much they dug up.

While I was waiting for my beautiful gate to appear I realized that this slab is in horrible shape.  I told them I wanted to get a price on repairs or replacement of it.  Everything went on hold for a little while.

I soon found Robert from TRJ Construction, who had poured my neighbor's slab, to do the work.  And as long as we're replacing the slab, let's put concrete across the whole width of the yard.  And take out those horrible stairs while you're at it.  This is what you call scope creep.

There were four hours of jack hammering just for the stairs plus another few hours for the slab.  Robert promised he would take care of my Peace Rose.

Suddenly it was all level.  And quiet!

Then there was gravel!  This was looking good!

Then there was rebar!  2 x 2 just like I requested!  They all want to sell you 3 x 3 but friends and family said be sure to get 2 x 2 so I did.  Zack and Levon (named after the Elton John song) from A&E Gates and Robert from TRJ Construction got the slab rebar coordinated with the gate rebar.

Then there was cement!

I wanted to draw the Radiohead logo but due to my lack of artistic abilities I went with this.  It's not my best work but any Revolution kite flyer worth their salt will recognize it.

Then the forms came off and the staining began.  The plan is that it will be close to the color of tire marks so that it always looks nice.

This is Robert from TRJ Construction.  He did a great job!

Update: It took over a year from when I ordered it, but my gate finally came and the fence next to it was installed.