Construction begins – New Gate Part Four

Thursday afternoon before construction was scheduled to begin, Patrick and I haphazardly found our way to the correct “hardware store” to purchase the supplies for our new wall and gate. After we paid for everything, we needed to explain that we wanted everything delivered. We drew a map to our home and gave the cashier our contractor’s phone number. As we departed, the owner of the establishment approached us for more details about the delivery. After much discussion, I think I made it clear to him that he should call our contractor, Enrique, whom he assured us he knew. I guess everything worked out ok because Friday afternoon the hardware store dumped a load of rocks –one pile of small rocks and one pile of crushed rocks- in front of our driveway (as seen in photo). We heard the next load of supplies would be delivered Monday morning.

Bright and early Monday morning (7AM) Enrique arrived with his crew of three men! I expected two but maybe three meant the gate would be completed sooner. Patrick and I had spent a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday cutting back the garden and transplanting a few of the larger nicer plants. I guess we didn’t quite grasp the scope of the project because within a few hours of working on Monday the small crew had the entire garden ripped up and trenches dug so they could begin pouring cement. Oh well, I think roses are somewhat over-rated anyway (both photos show the pile of leaves that had once been in a nice garden).

The supplies were actually delivered by 8:30AM Monday morning (seemed unusual to me for an on time delivery!) and the guys made a ton of progress. The crew of three men (Enrique still had his other project to work on) worked daily from 7AM to approximately 5PM with an hour lunch and a couple short breaks in between. They had the entire wall built by the end of the week but no mention of the gate going up.

The only problem so far with the construction happened to be the destruction of the natural fence that already existed. We originally only asked Enrique’s crew to build a front wall since we had plenty of trees and flowers and barb wire fence on the sides. BUT because in the hacking of plants to build the wall the crew destroyed the natural fence and now we had six feet gaps on both sides of our property. This was not the security we were looking for at all! So, we spoke to Enrique and ended up purchasing more supplies and requiring his crew to build sides to the wall. In the end with the sides to the walls and repositioning of some plants and trees all worked out almost better than originally planned.

We still needed a front gate, though, so one last installment to this long story should provide my Mom with THE photo of the finished wall and gate she has been waiting so patiently to see!