The hard work of making things look the same year after year

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I just finished doing some repair work on my front gate, which included disassembly, sanding, staining, and also repainting the frame. It spanned several days and I enjoyed the process, as I enjoy doing anything in the garden - it's all a labor of love. But when it was all finished and I stood back to admire my hard work, all I really saw was that the gate looked the same that it always had been for the past twenty years or so.

But that's really what I want. I like my house, and my garden, and caring for it includes doing stuff like this. I'm not fixing it up to sell, or flip, I live here, and hope that I'll be able to do so for the rest of my life (and it looks like there's a lot left!).

This style of gate is typical here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and when I had it installed (to replace the old plain wooden gate which was falling apart), I imagined that in the future I would have to replace the wooden slats. This gate faces west, and gets the full force and fury of the Arizona sun, which can be over 120 degrees in the summer, and it anywhere from 100 to 115 degrees for all of the summer months. The metal is unaffected, but the wood tends to suffer. Well, wouldn't you?

Once I had it all taken apart, to my surprise the wood looked OK. It needed some sanding, and I also used a wire brush, but overall it was fine and all I had to do was stain it and put it back.

I'm in my sixties now, and everything I do like this I consider will be the last time, but my dad lived to age 96, and I figure that I'm good for at least that, which means that I'll probably be doing this again in a few decades. I'm looking forward to it!

With the polyurethane coat.


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