The fence is finished! ...for now...?

So the fence is finally back together. Yeehah! It only took, what, like three weeks or so to get there. Well, I did have a twelve day work week in the middle of that which put a bit of a crimp in it. A week into the repairs I started a site move at work. Nothing like having to move several thousand square feet of server cabinets and computer racks along with all their equipment to a new site. Thankfully it all went pretty smoothly.

So, in the midst of that we have a fence that is in disarray. I'm very grateful for a neighbor and his friends that kept going on it without me and managed to get the majority of it back up so there was at least a fence between our yards again. Which, of course, can't be just that simple. No, after putting all the posts back in every section of fence doesn't fit right, but I mentioned that in the last post, so no need to digress further.

Yesterday I finally got another weekend and was able to get the rest of the supplies I needed and put my little side section and gate back together. Well, I wish it had been just that easy. Get this, we hadn't done anything to the three posts involved with this little section and gate, right? They just sat there while we worked on the rest of the fence. The south post was the only one we didn't pull out the first Saturday. So I haul my little section back over thinking all is well and go to put it in the brackets and just about quit right there. The darn thing had shrunk or something! Grrr! I tell you, not the way to start a day's work.

So I sucked it up and went next door to ask our neighbor how he had dealt with the other sections that had been short, and then returned to tackle the task. Fortunately, I was able to use some of the old 2x4's that had come off the longer sections that had been replaced last week. For a minute I thought I was going to have to make another trip to Home Depot already that day.

I measured and cut the sections down, then I had to sort out the slats and get them to hang level. Thank heavens for handy tools that give you a third hand. Those nice little DeWalt slide attachments for drills are great! It was great having it hold the screw so I could hold the slat with one hand and put the screw in with the other.

I also needed to add some anti-sag to the poor gate, so I put in the cross brace I had not managed to put in when I rebuilt the fence two years ago when it was sagging so badly it wouldn't even close. (I was interrupted by my father-in-law's stroke on that vacation and hadn't been able to put that in.) I also added an anti-sag kit with the braided wire and twist coupler to give it that extra boost it needed. And of course, that meant the latch needed adjustment so those pieces were moved around.

And at the end of the day, the gate now moves beautifully next to a nice solid fence and the kids can now be let out into the backyard without fear of their running into the street. Hooray!! (That's how my wife felt. Ecstatic!)

Another successful, if not typical, home improvement project complete! At least until we decide to refinish the poor thing... or something....

The southern fence

This was the week we decided to fix our southern fence line (I use the term loosely since the whole fence is only like 125 feet long, but hey...) which has been flapping in the wind for the last couple of years.

There is nothing like waking up at 2 a.m. to the snap, pop of the fence waving back and forth in the wind. Both our's and our neighbor's bedrooms are with in 20-30 ft. of the offending fence sections and this year we have both finally had it. Time for some home improvement efforts.

Thursday we started taking down fence sections so we could get to the posts. Even though the posts were wobbly it's still amazing how long it takes to knock one of those suckers out of the ground. I don't even want to mention the one that smacked me in the noggin Friday night and felt like it knocked a tooth loose, but I can't work a project like this without some kind of mishap like that. So I enjoyed a headache the rest of the weekend. That felt reeaaallll good Saturday trying to dig more dirt out of the holes so we could put down the gravel we needed. Pound, Pound, POUND!! Owwww....


Our neighbors sprinklers accidently came on Friday night and it was amazing how much water was still sitting in the holes that morning. Either our water table is super high or our dirt doesn't drain worth squat. I think there is a good amount of clay in the dirt. One hole had a full shovel's head worth standing in it still. At least it helped make the digging easier and added some moisture for the cement.

We decided we didn't like the cement's instructions to just pour the cement in and add water. What a joke. We tried it on one and just about pulled it all out and started over, but we managed to get it stirred up pretty decently in the hole. The rest we mixed in the wheelbarrow and poured in. MUCH more satisfactory. So we got all the posts in and cemented down. We were so proud! They looked so straight and perfect...!

Then we started trying to put up some of the fence lengths. Hah! Of course, none of them fit right now. The old fence posts had apparently not been leveled very well. Each section has three 2x4's holding the slats in place and each 2x4 was a different length on each section. We found a couple we could make fit with the judicios use of a slack line supplied by our neighbor's friend who was helping us out. (It's good to know rock climbers. They have great equipment!)

Well, with all that the couple of posts we were working on felt like they were loosening in their foundations, so we decided to call it a day and let the rest cure before attacking them. That's a good thing, 'cause everyone was getting pretty tired and a bit frustrated with the fence sections.

So after a decent day of digging holes, pouring cement, some frustration and lots of sun, we called it good. I was really glad since I think I was on the verge of heat exhaustion. I was feeling the sun I'd soaked up, even with all the sunscreen I'd put on. I went and grabbed me a nice cold BridgeHampton from Gandolfo's, crashed on the couch and watched some Narnia (LW&W) in HD. Ahhh! What a way to end the day!