Brick arch.

Did I ever mention I was old and hard-headed? I'll prove my point. I've been building stuff all my life and have put in a scad load of arches - wooden arches, brick, stone, and even some poured concrete arches. I got it in my head the other day to put in a brick arch in a window opening I was closing in. I had some extra bricks from taking down the chimney so I figured, why not? Now here is the hard-headed part - I decided I wasn't going to go to the trouble of building a form for one window that I was going to close in anyway - I'll freehand the arch.

Well as you can see it isn't exactly symmetrical. Sometimes I do stupid stuff but I can assure you I will build forms for the arches on the front porch.

I am having a hard time finding steel for the front gate. The idea is to use round tubular 2" conduit and bend it for the top edges, then fill in with welded wire. Like a stock gate only taller. I found some 2" conduit; the problem is they want a schedule 80 price for it. The gate doesn't have to hold buffalo in. I just want to know when someone shows up on my property that they came through the gate; then I know they are up to no good - I can deal with that.

La Paz is a great little town 3 kilometers from the property, 2 hardware stores, a cement block maker, a church, a school and a bunch of convenience stores. As far as I can tell we are the only gringos in the area but there are a lot of folks passing by on their way to Loja.