I have a confession: I’m a terrible pack rat.

While I don’t qualify as a hoarder, I can seldom bear, it seems, to throw out anything that hasn’t nearly disintegrated. I love the idea of upcycling, creative reuse of old objects, and I am also very cheap, which has proven to be an unfortunate combination for my backyard shed. To add to the misery, I also purchased this property from another apparent pack rat, and so came into not only a 3-bedroom house with a half-acre lot overgrown with vinca, honeysuckle, creeping liriope, and ivy, but an attic and shed full of tiny packs of miscellaneous hardware, scrap lumber, odd rusted tools, and (naturally) plastic and wire kits for organizing such messes.

At least once a year, or when I find the courage to face the task, I do a purge of the shed. I did quite well last week and scrapped all sorts of odd bits–plumbing parts, old doodads of unknown purpose–but I also unearthed the saloon doors that once separated the kitchen from the dining room. I am upcycling these doors into a garden gate in the kids’ play area.

I spent three days searching the shed for the hardware parts that mount the doors to the wall. While what I’ve just stated may argue to the contrary, I’ve come to appreciate the monetary value of both my time and my sanity, and so I did a little Internet search to see if the local big-box store might have a saloon door hardware pack. I didn’t find one listed in the inventory (not completely surprised, as saloon doors seem to appear less frequently in homes these days, for some reason…) but had a wander through the store anyway to see if there was some hardware hack I could easily execute.

What I found was (joy!) an actual saloon door hardware pack for under $7. My mental health, which I don’t always price at market value, is definitely worth $7. So into the cart it went, along with 2 4x4x6′ pressure-treated posts.

I pledge not to embark upon another home or garden project until this project is complete.

I took advantage of the recent rains to dig some deep holes in my sticky red clay. I filled the bottoms with rubble left over from the demolition of our masonry chimney, and backfilled with a sack of paver base (a mixture of sand, decomposed granite, and gravel).

The gatepost mid-setting.

After ensuring the posts were plumb and level, I topped off the backfill and packed it in. I removed the old hardware from the doors and hung the first door before I had to quit for the day.

The right-side door hung.

I will paint the posts in a few weeks; they need time to weather, first. The forecast for the weekend looks not too bad for January, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to complete the project quickly.