Three Years In The Making... Our New Fence!!

In case you're reading this and don't know, we subscribe to the Dave Ramsey way of life. Well, with our finances, at least. That means that we buy cars that we can afford out-right (meaning having no payment/loan), we attempt to keep our monthly spending at a limit where we can add to our savings as suggested, we keep a 6 month reserve fund, and don't make big purchases until we've saved up for said purchase in advance. It takes some will power to not just go buy something that you might want whenever you want it, but writing that check out--all the zeroes included, feels SO good! And that means that the only monthly bills we have are utilities and the mortgage; we don't have any loans to pay on. (For more details on Dave and his suggestions, click here.)

We knew when we bought this house 3 years ago that it was coming with a fence (and retaining wall--made out of railroad ties) 25+ years old. We knew we'd have to replace everything eventually, and immediately began saving for it. We also knew that having a big back yard means having a big property line which makes installing a new fence/wall very costly. After three years of saving (and dreaming), we finally have a new fence, and it's GORGEOUS!!! We couldn't be happier with the outcome. And writing the check to pay cash for it (and the feeling of 100% complete ownership immediately, rather than paying back the bank while they technically own it) is SO awesome!

Now for the resident landscape man (aka Seth Spofford) to work his magic on the greens back there... the grass, the "trees," the undergrowth, etc. *sigh* I can see it now... carpet-like grass from edge to edge. Just you wait. ... This will be the backyard of my dreams before you know it! :-)

Here's a little tour (beginning with the old):

Georgia hates posing for pictures, but I wanted to document how low the fence had gotten. It was literally sitting on that chair, closer to the ground than a 45 degree angle.

In process:

The first thing they had to do was dig a trench to lay the retaining wall in. ... Along all 200 feet of the back property line.

I still don't understand why they left some of the demolition until the very end, but it allows me to show you how much yard we gained in the process. It was over 4 feet all along the back, and over three feet all along the side.

The finished product:

shows where it transitions from 7 to 8 feet

the fence that runs along the driveway

Our bigger, more beautiful backyard.

They tore down the "shed" that had been in this corner. That gained us 6 feet all the way across there.

There's a lot of yard work needed here, but it's so nice to not have that stupid deck in the corner.

All the small greenery things used to be on the outside of the fence. We're still determining what we'll keep.

the gate to the alley

It didn't occur to me until almost too late to have Austin's hand print put in the concrete.

in the alley to the west

they also poured this slab for the garbage and recycling bins

This picture shows the transition of the 8 feet to the 6 feet. But, I took the picture at eye-level, so you can see how far the top of the 6 foot fence is from the ground. No one would see over it by just walking down the alley.

From the east property line looking west to where our property line curves, cutting the remaining 80 feet or so off from view.

That deck in the corner was good for at least one thing: concealing balls! We had a whole bag of trashed balls to throw away. And for the record, the majority of these are not ours. That deck had been hiding balls for years!

For those interested in details, the retaining wall is poured concrete, with re-bar, trenched into the ground, stands approximately 2 feet tall, and runs the entire back of the property which is 200 feet. The fence is a board-on-board using pre-stained Western Red Cedar. The front (visible from the street) is 7 feet high, it increases to 8 feet high along the property line between us and the next-door neighbors, and then decreases to 6 feet in the back (which, when added to the height of the wall make it well over 8 feet from ground level). The half fence along the driveway is the same wood, skipping the top boards and is about 4 feet high. (It's see-through so we can see children playing in the driveway, and yet secure enough that Georgia is contained.) All told, that's over 335 feet of fence! They tore down all the fence, remaining retaining wall, the deck in the corner, and the "shed" that had been along the front and hauled it away. They were here a total of 12 days working on everything.