Ghetto Baby-Gate Fix

This is a little late to help our friends the Harveys who screwed into their woodwork to support their gates....
We had to contain the babies in the 'baby-safe' area which of course means baby gates. The big pocket doorway represented a particular problem for us. Its very wide so a standard compression gate won't work and we wanted a doorway for easy access when you have a baby in one hand. Annnnd we really, really, really didn't want to tear up the original moldings around the doorway with a bunch of screws.

Here's what I came up with. I cut two 2by3's to just fit inside the doorway. Then I tapped shims into the top of the 2by3's locking them in place.

Check out the tuning fork in the middle of the doorway. Its to keep out 'bad vibrations.'

Ya its ugly and ghetto-tastic for sure. How ya like that big ole crack on the wall?

If I REALLY cared I'd cut the shims even with the wood and paint the whole thing white. I think you'd barely even notice it then.

Just in case people don't know what the heck I'm talking about here's a picture of the shims.

One funny thing that happened was that as the wood dried out it shrank pretty significantly in length and I had to tap the wedges in a lot more.

Now its so tight that I can not even get the 2by3's to budge. I think it'll stand up to the kids pretty well.