Tuesday, April 26, 2016

How to Install a Self-Adjusting Gate Latch

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored project/product by National Hardware, but my opinions are, as always, 100% my own.


My backyard gate: it was one of the first projects ever completed at the house. So, of course, it's also one of the first things to break.


Twice. Or maybe three times. I've lost count.


broken fence latch


The first time, I don't even know what happened to make it break. I simply came home to missing parts. But, the latch had also originally been installed on the wrong side of the fence (in that it was on the front of the gate instead of behind it). So when I did the last fix, I simply flipped the replacement around, but didn't really think it through. The problem, as you can see above, was that I didn't think to install it along the support of the gate and instead attached it to one of the fence pickets, just as it originally had on the other side. It worked for a while, but a windy storm this past winter split the picket down the middle, and off came the hardware along with it.


broken gate and fence


The last time it broke, I was able to fix the malfunction with a zip tie. But now that the other side broke off completely, I decided that it was finally time to upgrade and put the hardware in the right spot.


old hardware


 


Luckily enough for me, National Hardware reached out and asked if I'd like to work on a few projects with them this year. Uh, duh. I have like 30 things on my to-do list that could use some hardware, so this was a perfect match. I described what I needed, and they immediately sent me a heavy duty latch:


national hardware heavy duty gate latch


Not only was it stronger, but twice as wide (insert dirty joke). The reason for this being that the original 4-inch latch needed only to span the distance from the post to the first picket; but because there was existing hardware attached to the end of the gate support, the new latch would need to fit on the other side while still reaching across to the same spot on the post. If that sounded like complete gibberish, let's try a visual demonstration:


To do this project, you'll need (affiliate links):



Also optional: your curious fur helper who just wants to bark at flying flower tufts floating in the air.


Charlie 2016


Step one: remove the old hardware and toss it in the garbage.


remove old hardware


This includes the rusty old screws of the picket still stuck to the gate.


remove old screws


The only tricky part about installing a new latch is remembering what goes where. For example, there is a piece that gets screwed into the post (the “strike”, A in the photo below) and a piece with a long arm that gets screwed directly onto the gate (B). I wanted to screw the post side in from the left rather than the right, so it required unscrewing the bolt that held the strike in place (the part that catches the arm when closing the gate). This could all be done by hand, and I was able to flip the mechanics of the keep around by simply turning it upside down and tightening the bolt back down.


flip hardware to other side


As always, drilling pilot holes will keep the screws from slipping away from you and help the installation go much faster. Once you've lined up where the new hardware is going to be, mark the holes with a pen, then use a bit that is slightly narrower than the width of the screw to create your pilot holes (using an exact width will prevent the threads on the screw from catching in the wood).


mark pilot holes


I chose to start with the gate side because that seemed easier (attaching the latch arm side, then using that as a guide for figuring out where the strike needed to be on the left in order to catch it).


drill pilot holes


Unlike the previous hardware I'd installed, this set came with lag screws (or lag bolts, whatever you prefer), so I had to use a different bit on the end of my drill (the instructions say to use a wrench, but this also works!).


hex nut driver bit and lag bolt


Even though I have lots of bit sets, this was definitely not a bit I get to use very often, so the novelty of it was actually kinda fun.


screw lag bolts with hex nut driver


For the final screw, thread the adjustable arm through the hole on the right and tighten the bolt down like the others, but leave a little wiggle room so that the arm can move up and down like so:


adjusting gate latch arm


And before ya know it, my heavy duty gate latch was in place, looking spiffy and solid:


new hardware on gate


Another thing I made sure of with the new latch was that it still had the same adjusting feature of the old one. Over time, fences settle and move around a little, so it's better to spend a few extra bucks and buy a latch that can handle a slight shifting every now and then (on this particular model, this feature is called “Adjust O-Matic”, which makes me think of those funny infomercials for kitchen appliances that dice onions or peel boiled eggs). This new hardware can adjust on both sides. On the left (the part that was screwed into the post), the screw holes are taller than needed for a single screw to fit. This longer notch means that if the fence ever settles more and the latch piece could stand to shift down by a  quarter of an inch or so, I can easily accomplish this by unscrewing it slightly, moving the hardware down slightly, and tightening the screws again - no new pilot or screw holes needed.


screws left side


On the right, the screw that holds the arm of the latch in place is a little loose, so it has a small range of motion that helps it move up or down as needed to catch itself on the other side. This means that if it too ever needs a slight adjustment, I won't have to break out my tools again.


adjusting gate latch arm


With the new hardware in place, I could now unscrew the old, split picket and replace it with an equally old one that I just happened to still have left over from this project and this project (which were leftover scrap projects of their own!). Done!


new gate hardware 2


how to install self adjusting gate hardware


how to install automatic adjusting gate hardware


how to install an adjustable arm gate latch


The post How to Install a Self-Adjusting Gate Latch appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.


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Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Six Year Itch

This weekend, I had to break the news to my poor house: after our six long years together, I have been secretly working on other homes.


Not often, of course - I'm still totally into my house. It just, you know, breaks up the monotony of patching and painting all the new molding around the windows a little. Or maybe it was that I wanted to see if this cute guy I know could use a paint brush without it looking like a crime scene from Dexter (spoiler: he can't, but it was also really funny).*


Dexter crime scene
If you can believe it, his shirt looked even worse. UPDATE: see below for that pic.

How I found myself in this (literal) mess was that I woke up, poured myself some coffee, and casually texted/offered to help on Saturday morning. A word of warning: there is often a difference in the response you'll get based on when you offer this kind of help. If the project hasn't started yet, and you're not really willing to actually help, you have a much better chance of the other person responding with something along the lines of, “actually, thanks, but I think I've got this.”


deck stain before


But if the person has already started working on the project, my advice to you is to only offer help if you actually do intend on helping. At this point in the game, their thick, shiny coat of hubris wears a little thin, and it's only a matter of time before it's in tatters (though as a person who has been in this position, if you just keep pressing on, you'll eventually finish it and be so proud of yourself for having accomplished the task on your own that you might actually end up feeling like a total badass).


deck stain before first coat


But, as you all probably know, DIY projects are kinda my thing. I may have even been known to push people to finish projects when they aren't exactly expecting it (coughcough Kit).


Anyway, since he'd already started the project, he quickly accepted my offer, and I took a small detour to get an extra brush (because he only. had. the. one. Who buys only ONE brush?!?! Oh, right… normal folks who don't spend their lives doing this kind of stuff).


UPDATE: It's a good thing I got my own, because even though he took my advice to get a Purdy brush (and I'm also partial to this rubber-handled sash brush), his was completely soaked in stain up to the handle (but, I suppose this now gives me a great excuse to just go ahead and write a decent basic painting tutorial with all of my tips, so win-win). He was fully dunking the brush and then hitting it against the giant 5-gallon bucket of stain, sending splatters and smears of it onto his shirt, his pants, and onto parts of the deck he wasn't staining yet (which would have left dried drip spots if left that way). Obviously, I found this pretty entertaining and endearing… even if he looked like a freaking serial killer in the process (he's actually hiding his blood-red hands behind his back for some reason… I think it was how hard I was laughing).


serial killer shirt


The additional good news there is, I was recently sent some cleaning products that are meant to clean up jobs like this with ease. I get paint on my hands pretty often when I'm working in tight corners, so I think there will be a few opportunities coming up to put it to the test! (I think the shirt is a goner, though.)


My style is to scale down and use a smaller container, then dispose of the messier things at the end. Since he didn't have a paint trim cup or a coffee mug he was ready to part with, I went with the next best thing:


my paint brush
Solo cups: not just for parties anymore.

He'd already had the deck pressure washed to get rid of loose or peeling pieces, so it had about a week to dry off before staining (tip: when it comes to pressure washing a deck, a pro is usually recommended because it's easy to use too much pressure … for DIY, a cleaning solution that you scrub on with a stiff brush and rinse off is much more user-friendly; just be sure to get the deck totally clean before reapplying stain). Before too long, we could already see some major changes between the old and new deck stain (called Cape Cod Red by Sherwin-Williams).


old red vs new red


As more parts of the railings were finished, it started to dawn on me that we still had a long way to go…


old rails vs new rails stained
So. Many. Balusters.

Tip: it also helps to trim back bushes that are touching the rails before you get stain all over them. Ha!


trim hedges


After cranking up some tunes and simply pressing onward (and on, and on), we actually managed to get the whole guardrail done. This was definitely the more time-consuming part, so our stopping point ended here for the day:


back of house


The best part about doing a project like this is the immediacy of the outcome. Here is how it looked in the morning before getting started:


backyard deck stain before


And here's how the same angle looked when we grabbed a beer to cap off an afternoon of patient work.


new deck stain


Nice. Oh, and I snapped the below picture when I noticed how different the wood looks between leaving it without stain (meh), the older stain (which still did a better job of protecting the wood than leaving it bare), and the new deck stain being applied (it looks a little thick on the application in this photo, but the dirt on the other side needed to be wiped down before I could continue to brush it out… a rain shower a few days prior left a couple of the lower supports sandy).


how to restain a deck


Perhaps thanks in part to my ambitious promise that the deck could/would be done before the end of the week, he went right ahead and finished up the rest on his own in the days following. I was sent these photos just earlier today, in fact:


cape cod red deck stain


new deck stain after


have been toying with the idea of adding a platform deck to my own back yard, and I think this project just clinched it for me. There are a few things I'll need to address before I can make it happen, but working on this one has really given me a boost to start thinking about how great a larger space for entertaining would be. So, I guess if I'm going to work on a house other than my own for a change, I may as well come back with a longer to-do list for myself.


Hmm. I wonder if I can find anyone who is now obligated to help…


 


*Personal update: I always try to share my life as honestly as possible on the blog (good or bad), but many years ago when I broke up with my ex, I realized that I should be really careful about who and what I put on the blog, the things I say about them, etc. I want to share funny stories and points of view about the goofy stuff that happens as long as everyone's having fun with it, but in consideration and respect for jobs and lives outside of the site and what have you, I don't want to rush into sharing too much about someone else and/or embarrass them in a way that makes them want something removed (the permanence of the internet being the internet, and all). Anything I put on here when mentioning anyone I'm involved with is discussed prior to publishing (and this dude has been totally fine with all of it), but it's just going to be a while before I get comfortable sharing more info; call it a peace of mind thing. Thanks in advance for understanding!


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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

All the Coffee, Please.

For the last few weeks, this has probably been my most-used tool in the house:


coffee maker
I no longer remember what I did before this existed in my house.

Long story shortest: this time of year is a large pile of things I don't want to have to deal with.


Long story shortish: Between license renewals (I'm even having to renew my driver's license and passport this year), a fair amount of extra paperwork, and lots of little nagging things (Charlie needs to go to the vet, I need new tires, etc.), having a May birthday feels like a countdown to a financial bomb going off. It's also coming up on a year since Granny's passing, and I'm fully entertaining the possibility that I might be that person who loses her cool at a time when it makes the least amount of sense (though hopefully, not at anyone in particular… just, you know, buying a candy bar at Kroger, and I'll be the one sobbing into her Snickers).


Also? I recently got into a car accident. Both the other driver and I are thankfully fine, but something like that is never not scary, and I'd say that probably pushed April's stress level up to 11. Which, you know - helps loads for me feeling like I've got my shit together.


The good news is, I'm slightly more than halfway through the madness. I also know that I've been through stressful days like these before and turned just fine, so it's often a matter of perspective and pushing forward. Eating the elephant and all that jazz. And of course, all the coffee.


rule the world start with coffee
grab this print here

I have a number of things I've been working on that I want to share with you as soon as tonight/tomorrow, but since I'm already feeling the lag of the day (it's currently 1 AM as I'm typing this), I'm going to start by briefly sharing a small before and after that I was reminded of thanks to Facebook's Timehop feature (say what you want about FB in general, but I would argue this is definitely one of their more fun updates). If you can believe it, this was 2009… the very first glimpse I ever had of the endless supply of weird smells, strange new vocabulary words, and lots of reasons for cursing that became my home:


house listing, 2009


And now, I get to take photos of it that look like this (I still have to fill in the window nail holes and build a new coffee table, but  you get the idea):


coffee and weekend projects
Pillow from Target (similar). If you've been reading a while, you may have recognized that wooden couch sleeve above. The tutorial for that is here.

So, happy Monday- er, Tuesday, I guess :) And here's a sneak peek of what's coming up in the next post (I promise, it isn't a crime scene):


Dexter crime scene


The post All the Coffee, Please. appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.


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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Making Changes to the Mailbox Garden Bed

For the last six years, it's been kind of a ritual for me to periodically change the annuals in the garden bed beneath the mailbox. From geraniums to vinca to marigolds to snapdragons, this little area has been a neat spot to help me learn the basics of what flowers grow best in my yard, the kind of care they need, etc. And as much fun as it has been to put my growing (pun-intended) gardening skills to the test, I felt like spring's early arrival signaled a major shift in this house.


phlox mailbox garden bed


For one, my front yard no longer looks like a drab, brown mess thanks to a blanket of pine straw:


pine straw front lawn


Now that the pine trees have been (for the most part) removed and the remaining foliage pruned back, the bright sun has been beaming down on my front lawn and pouring light into the front windows. Sure, to the uninformed eye, it's still just a lawn full of weeds. But to me, it's also a lawn… and seeing this much green outside of my windows is making me very, very happy.


spring lawn no pine straw
And yes… one of my neighbors still has their icicle lights up.

With each passing year, I feel like I have sufficiently proven to myself that I can, in fact, grow healthy and beautiful (even sometimes overgrown!) flowers. I also realized that unlike many of the other outdoor projects I have spent my time on, the mailbox and the front garden are the only two spaces where I have deliberately avoided making a permanent decision on. I guess I kind of always expected that to be the case-adding new flowers as I saw fit each season-but until I found a good enough reason, I was content to just keep trying out new ideas. That is, until I saw this:


phlox garden bed


Every (or nearly) Monday, I hop in my car and meet up with a running group in another part of Atlanta. Once I started working from home, I realized how important keeping a regular schedule and getting myself out of the house is, so it's been a great way to get out, meet new people, etc. During the winter months, the sun has already set, and we usually run in the dark. But now that the days have gotten longer, I have the opportunity to run past lots of homes with different landscaping plans and see them in colorful detail. Even though I can often picture how something on the interior of my home is going to look, it's always been more of a struggle to picture landscaping. So, I look forward to my run and the mental notes I take from the homes I pass by, hoping for something that will strike me as a good option for mine.


mailbox before


I snapped a quick picture of the lawn above and kept glancing at it over the last week, growing more and more infatuated with the little bluish-purple flowers. Phlox comes in several varieties and I've experimented with growing them before, but had not really ever considered them for the mailbox. After all, they are a perennial, and I had largely been expecting to continue to try out annuals. Since the intent with annuals is that they aren't going to grow back the next year, I usually go for the cheapies of whatever's on sale, never spending more than about $5-7 at a time for whatever I plant (I can often find six-packs for $1.50 if I time my visit to the home improvement store correctly). But if I were to plant something that can and would grow back (and my confidence level has grown over time to make this less of a risk for me), I could splurge on something a little pricer-especially since places like Home Depot and Lowes have guarantees on perennial plants (if they die in the first year, just take in your receipt & the plant for a replacement). At $5 per plant, I picked up four of the Emerald Blue cultivars (there are over 100 cultivars out there, but I had about 5 different color types to choose from at the store I went to, and these caught my eye the most).


mailbox garden bed digging in


First, I had to dig out the remaining dusty miller I planted last fall, but they were still growing strong, so I put them aside to replant (I absolutely LOVE the soft leaves of this plant, but if they die, they die… they are inexpensive and sold around here as an annual, but can also last a long while once established). I also took this opportunity to clean up layers of extra mulch I simply never removed from the multiple seasons of replanting (I'd scrape a small amount away, but over time, the mound just got bigger). I had a small, empty spot in my front yard from where I tree had long since been removed (it wasn't part of the removal I did last year), so I took the mulched soil and weeds and tamped it down with my feet. On top, I threw down some grass seed and fertilizer-the expectation being that the area will grow in and no longer risk being stumbled into (my dad's done it once or twice when not watching his footing).


fill in old stump


Next, I took out my new garden edging tool and finally got to work on securing the scalloped edging that decorates every part of my front and back yards. I don't necessarily like them, but I also don't feel like spending lots of money replacing it all because it's the edging used everywhere-front garden, side of the house, around the trees that were removed, etc. I dug the ones around the mailbox out a long time ago when I first moved in, intending on either replacing them with ones I liked or making the garden bed slightly larger and digging them back down again (the mower kept knocking them loose).


edger tool helps dig in compacted soil


But soon after, my wallet spoke up and gently suggested that I hated them less than I hated spending all of that money. So, a mere five years later, I finally actually dug them back into the dirt again. #slackerprojects


my legs are so pale


The edging tool made this a much quicker job than I expected, so I'm definitely going to be making the effort to do this in other spots soon. Just a few stomps every few inches allowed me to create large voids in the soil, which I then sunk the stones into.


edging the mailbox garden bed


I re-used clumps of the dirt I'd dug up and filled in the space on both sides. Red Georgia clay isn't super awesome for planting in, but it sure can secure loose edging! Little things, amirite?


compacting soil around edger stones


I then went on to add the border of the dusty miller and phlox. Since phlox can be divided in spring and fall, I went ahead and split the roots down the middle of each plant and spread them open (kind of like opening a book), which allowed me to sort of plant them into more of a crescent shape, each circling the mailbox post. I have no real basis for thinking this would be at all helpful in the future when I do divide the plants completely (once they have had a chance to grow in a little), but I figured that creating a wider expanse for the roots to take hold would be helpful. I also added some fertilizer on top of the soil before throwing down the now-regular method of newspaper and mulch to keep weeds at bay.


how to divide phlox


So, this might be sayonara for annual plantings at the mailbox, but I also think that it's an impactful change that will fill in nicely and require less maintenance going forward (phlox is drought-, pest-, deer-, frost-, etc. tolerant, so they are a pretty perfect choice for someone like me who won't pay them much attention). It'll take some time for these to grow in as full as the lawn I was inspired by, but it's called creeping phlox for a reason. Win-win. What have you been planting lately?


mailbox garden bed


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