Taking matters into my own hands

At the beginning of the year, the neighbour who shares my back garden gate

raised the subject of getting it replaced. As you can see in the above photo, it is a little worse for wear.

What you can’t see is that the top bar with the lock on it comes away and has a tendency to knock us on the head when we open the gate. So, it is only a matter of time before it does us an injury and/or will provide us with not even a smidge of security.

My neighbour had raised the issue of making a new gate, which she thought might be quite simple. However, after she had put in the new fence between us (it is strictly speaking my fence but I didn’t have the funds to help with costs), I felt it was appropriate for me to do the honours on this occasion.

A friend had suggested a company which had put her fence in. So, I took a look at what it had to offer and was quite taken with one of their fence panels, which could be made into gate. So far so good.

I would really love to have had this gate and for them to do the installation, too. The issue was that they messed me around and after a phone conversation with the liaison person this afternoon, I decided to roll back my plan.

The upshot is that I now have a plank of wood

from another company who were friendly and helpful. They may be a national firm and the wood may not be from quite the same ethical source but I am tired of ethical companies with poor customer service.

Anyway, the hope is that I can mend the gate, thus providing a breathing space in order to decide what to do for the long term. Ticking all the boxes might be a bit of a challenge but we shall see!