However, now that we have Lexi things have changed. Lexi is perfectly happy skidding her way across tile and hardwood floors. I need another gate for the other door into my dining room. I have a purchased gate in the opening right now but I hate it. It's much narrower than the entire door opening and I have to step through it sideways to avoid accidentally knocking it down.
So, using my newfound mad skills in Sketchup I designed my new gate.
This gate is going to be fundamentally the same style with the addition of the opening for my plus sized cat. She still fits through the front gate I made almost five years ago but it's a bit of a squeeze. I wouldn't be shocked to find her running through the house with a gate stuck around her waist.
This gate also has to work around some molding that the first gate didn't need to.
I'm particularly proud of figuring out how to make the cap to the gate top. There's a wide and shallow chamfer along the top of the rail that I had to figure out how to make in Sketchup. The trick is to make a template of what the profile is supposed to look like, draw the shape for the template to follow (the rounded end) and then use the "Follow Me" tool.
I haven't even checked to see if I have material for this yet. I probably do. It'll only need a small amount of walnut and I try to keep poplar on hand. I may try to bang it out over one of the upcoming weekends but I'm not sure I'm going to have a free weekend before mid-July.
