Building Small Gate with Cedar Pickets

To completely enclose our backyard, we needed to build a small gate for the edge of the fence, where it was meeting the old white picket fence. This area faces the side of the house and is rather narrow so we didn't need anything too high, for the sake of privacy.

However, we like the idea to be able to close our backyard totally, so as to not have strange dogs or cats run around, so we decided to build a smaller gate.

Remember these cedar pickets?

We used them when we built the accordion carport fence. Well, since this fence is on the same line as the carport fence, we decided to go for the same kind of design. Plus, these pickets are really light (and cheap!) so they are actually perfect to use for a gate, where you're more concerned about weight than you are about something being super sturdy.

Since this fence had to be located somewhat on the diagonal if we were to attach it to the cedar post, we had to build a rather long panel. The height ended up being four feet, since that's the length of the pickets to start with.

So, we built a panel, used 1x2 cedar for the frame and lots of pickets for cross bracing. Then we put it up, and we realized that first of all, there was a rather large gap towards the house, so small animals could still get through. The gate was also sagging a bit and needed extra strength. 

So, we took it off, nailed in a 2x4 board at the post to move the gate closer to the house, and we also added some extra reinforcement boards, much like we did when making the gate by the carport:

This did the trick.

Now this little gate is so much easier to close and open. It's really rigid and sturdy, while being light and there is no gap towards the house. 

Now, I'm only trying to determine if I want to put a finish on this gate (like we're doing with the rest of the main fence) to maintain the cedar color, or if I want to white-wash or paint it white.

I still haven't made up my mind about the carport fence, I can really go either way there, and I think this gate should be of the same design as the accordion fence, so I'll see what we'll do. But, now we got a little gate to go through that also was the final step towards completely closing off the backyard.