Fence

Sean and I spent the entire weekend either actively building the fence or going to the hardware store for the seventeenth thing we forgot to get the last time we were there. The adventure started Thursday, with a trip to Sutherland's Lumber while Ella was at Sage’s house playing with Annica (thanks, Sage!!). Apparently I am not capable of counting higher than 21, because we were six 2x4’s shy of what we needed. We picked those up at Lowes, but good lord, we had to look at every single board they had to find six that were relatively straight and not split or otherwise wrecked.

Just as we were getting ready to dig postholes Thursday afternoon and while I was at Ace Hardware buying screws (which we had of course forgotten at Lowes), Maggie went right ahead and had a seizure. We rushed her to the vet, and there went the rest of Thursday. Incidentally, Maggie seems to be fine and we’re not going to worry too much unless she has another one.

Friday was posthole diggin’ day, and we went right to work in the morning. Our neighbor, Janessa, was sweet enough to take Ella to the park for a couple of hours to allow us to get a jump on things. We thought it best to do the major sawing while Ella was gone, so we used the table saw to rip our 2x4’s into 1x4’s (a huge cost-saving measure, as redwood 1x4s are even more expensive that 2x4s), then began to dig our postholes. Ella came home from the park in one of those moods, and we got very little done the rest of the afternoon. All we were able to manage was bracing the posts on the north side before calling it a day.

Ella sacked out in the lawn chair after
a hard day of being completely impossible.

Saturday morning we hit it early to pour concrete in the postholes. Just as we were ready to mix concrete, we realized that we were short, oh, about a thousand pounds. Literally. One. Thousand. Pounds. Attach trailer to car and go back to Lowes. Again. Bring trailer home a thousand pounds heavier, and proceed with concrete mixing. (Thank goodness for that trailer.)

Cue Ella to completely FREAK OUT. She must have sensed we needed to get something accomplished because she was whining and crying and yelling, “Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!! MAAAAMMMAAAAAA!” all day long. Despite heavy protests, I forced the nap issue and although she didn’t sleep for long at all, she woke up much happier. We got all our posts set and stained all the ones on the north side.

Fence posts set on the north side of the yard.

Sean stayed out until dark mixing and pouring concrete into the postholes on the west side while Ella and I scrubbed the backyard off of ourselves and walked over to the great new Thai place on the corner for takeout.

Sean finishing up after a marathon post-setting
session on the west side of the yard.

My plan was to stain the posts on the west side of the yard early Sunday morning, because the weather forecast called for afternoon thundershowers. It was pouring rain when I woke up at 7:00 and didn’t stop for the rest of the day, so we stayed in and I made apple-cinnamon pancakes for our big Sunday breakfast. If you’d like to give them a try, just add one grated apple and 1 tsp cinnamon to your usual pancake recipe, and also use brown sugar instead of white sugar. After a couple of grocery runs, we spent most of the day drinking frozen cocktails, sewing, and cleaning the house.

Ella stomping in puddles in the rain with
her fun ladybug umbrella from Grandma Janet.

Late Sunday afternoon after the rain had subsided a bit, we tried to figure out what in the Sam-hell we were going to do to hang the 2x4’s between our posts. We first had to devise a clamping/bracing system, after nearly killing each other trying to drill pilot holes for our toe-nailed screws at wonky angles with nothing but a profanity-laden prayer holding the boards in place. This situation is a sure-fire recipe for a divorce. I saved our marriage and worked out a system by clamping a scrap piece of 2x4 behind the 4x4 posts and clamping our 2x4 rail to that. It held the board perfectly flush with the back of our posts and left our hands free to drill pilot holes and drive screws. By the time we figured all of this out, and between Ella having total meltdowns, we had exactly ONE 2x4 rail hung when our only 7/64” drill bit, which was far too short anyway, snapped in half. Cue Dana’s total freak out.

2x4 rail hung on 4x4 post, using toenailed screws
so hardware won't show on opposite side. Bamboo
panels are hung on this face of the 2x4 rail, then
sandwiched between this 2x4 and a 1x4 on the
facing side.

Finally, we arrived at Monday morning and I calmly informed Sean that if we didn’t have bamboo hung on the north side by the end of the day, I was moving. We started the day, as all our others, at Lowes buying more drill bits and two more 2x4’s, because I still can’t count. After hanging three 2x4 rails across the bottom of our fence, I arrived at the unfortunate conclusion that our yard slopes even more than I thought it did and had to remove all the rails and reposition them. After hanging three more rails across the top of the fence, I came to the equally unfortunate conclusion that due to the slope of the yard, the top of the 4x4 corner post, which is attached to our neighbor’s fence, was about 4 inches too short. We now have a new post on that corner, and were only set back an hour.

Ella having a great time going back and forth
to "Fritz's yard" through the peeled-back
chainlink fence on the south side of
our yard. Fritz is our neighbor's dog.

Before we could hang the bamboo panels, all of the 2x4 rails had to be stained, as did the posts on the west side of the yard so we can hang the rails on that side in the next few days. I hung the bamboo panels using my awesome nail gun (thanks, Sean!) before calling it quits to grill a much-deserved steak for Sean and portabella for me. It took seemingly forever to get to this point, but my goodness, is it ever gorgeous. It’s turning out even more beautiful than I had imagined. The backyard I’ve been dreaming about for the last 5 years is finally materializing.

Staining the top 2x4 rails before hanging
the bamboo panels.

First bamboo panel hung! This photo is taken
from our side of the fence, and the 1x4 facing
at the top & bottom of the panel is not yet attached.

Fence as seen from our neighbors' yard
(north side). Posts will be cut flush with the
top rails and a 2x6 cap will cover the top of the
fence, but otherwise this side looks nearly complete.

A closer look at the fence from Dennis & Richard's side.