My first Do-It-Yourself (DIY) project was the result of us adding our newest family member earlier this year, our dog Ansel.  He is an always happy dog with tons of energy.  Unfortunately he loves to chew, is quite rambunctious and we have two cats as well.  As a result we have a crate for him in the house.  We let him roam around the living room under supervision, but he doesn’t get free range like the cats do.  Our new house is on 1/3 acre and isn’t fenced in so we can’t just let him wander around outside either.

Our house does have a 5’x50’ section directly behind the house.  This area enclosed on two sides (one side by the house, the other side by an 8’ retaining wall.  This seemed like the perfect area for a dog run.  Ideally we’ll get the entire property fenced in, but until then this appeared to be a good intermediate step.

I really dislike chain-link fences and since we plan on living here for a while I figured a couple of wooden gates to full enclose this dog run would be perfect.  Buying prefabricated gates sounds easy, but they aren’t cheap and you’re limited by available dimension.  For example home depot sells gates that are 3.5’x6’ for $161.83 (plus tax).  That means it would cost $353.60 for two basic gates made of cedar.  However, my gates needed to be at least 5’ wide and I wanted them taller than 6’.

Luckily I have a friend who had done a lot of woodworking and gates are relatively simple.  We ended up spending $398.37 on building supplies which also provided some leftover materials for future projects and I learned a new skill.  It took us probably about 6 hours to get the materials, build the gates, and hang them.  I am sure he could have done it faster, but I did most of the work with him teaching.

First gate enclosing the dog run

Second gate enclosing the dog run

I ended up with two 8’ tall gates made of redwood and a new skill set.  Our puppy ended up with a new place to run.