Stupidly, I decided there would be no better time than the pandemic to rebuild a two-family I had bought during the 2009 recession. The house sat for years, barely remade, while I lived and worked in another city. The agent advised me it was a tear-down. Two years after moving in, it is almost structurally rebuilt, but no cosmetics, yet.
How wrong I was about building in the pandemic, ladies and gentlemen! Every single thing I have paid union and top tradesmen (and bottom tradesmen, all told) to perform has been done wrong. So every job I had to either teach myself how to do, in order to redo it, or pay a second or third tradesman to redo! It is as though everyone took a collective mental timeout that justified not paying attention to their work. I went through an entire remodel/rebuild budget in the first few months of the pandemic. Prices tripled in San Diego, where I live. And the work was triply bad. A nightmare.
So what does that mean when you want to buy a well-made rustic gate? Does it mean I have to rebuild a new gate? That was where my expectations were.
So here I am, ready to put in a gate I have not even been able to find. I am tapped out of money, doing one project at a time, as I can fund it out of my check. I knew, no matter what, that I had to have a strong Mexican-style gate. It would make my property beautiful, but I have felt that like no other time in my life, I had to have a secure, secure gate. There are so many people not working or living on the streets, looking for opportunity, or simply desperate.
After weeks of searching in Mexico for a Mexican-style gate, with ironwork, including an iron-protected "peek" portal--and just an aesthetic I desired-- I had to expand my search. Nothing was what I wanted outside European-made merchandise. This is how I came to find Pacific Gate Works. I knew in about an hour of researching and speaking with the representative, Dave, that this was what I had been looking for. I upgraded everything in my order--thickest gate they made, iron studs and peek hole, copper drip cap on the top, They said it would be 6 weeks. I doubted it, but I was stuck. Price? A little over $2K for a custom-made gate.
It arrived, on time, undamaged, delivered to my garage by FedEx. My worker and I just opened it. It is a marvel! Utterly, breathtakingly beautiful. HEAVY! Beautiful finish-sanded, clear cedar. Not Mexican, not primitive-- just astonishing. Everything I do to it now will be either a step down or a step up. But, trust me, this is the finest gate you can get outside hiring a professional carpentry shop to custom make it for you.
I will update this, with pictures, after I get the surround built, then get it hung. Yes, the frame and hardware came with it. I am taking it to a car shop right now, to get a bid on what it will cost to custom spray it. read more