Fence - Part 2

Until recently there has been no progress on the fence.

In case you missed the fence project and all the drama and lessons learned, check it out here, here and here.


I know, it's hard to believe there have been three other posts about my fence, and yet this post is called Part 2.  Yeah....it's been that kind of project. ;)


Last month I had a huge yard sale to raise funds for the rest of the fence panels. And it was such a success I was even able to get the pergola I wanted!!!  Unfortunately, it needed to be assembled.  Every. Single. Little. Bitty. Piece!!!


So everything has sat for the last several weeks.  BUT...last weekend while I was at my booth doing some tweaking, my ex-husband and my Doodle assembled my pergola!! Talk about a surprise!  


And it is GORGEOUS!!

You may be wondering why I chose a wood pergola when I have a vinyl fence.  Well, one, it was cheaper than a vinyl one.  This cost $189 on sale at Menards.  The vinyl pergolas started around $300.  But more importantly, this one is GORGEOUS (did I mention that?)!  All the vinyl ones I looked at were very plain...nothing special.


I plan to paint this white to match the fence.   

Once I get this painted...once I get the money to buy paint, LOL...then I can finally get the picket fence installed on either side of the pergola. 


Of course, the pergola will be centered, it's not it's proper place at the moment...but this is progress for sure! :)

And you've probably forgotten (how dare you, LOL)  but I was working on this paver border earlier in the spring.  I finally finished it!  Well, I finished it up to as much as I planned to do this year....where the picket fence will be installed.  I'll pick it up again next spring.  This is what it looked like last time you saw it.

And here is what it looks like now.

It took me for.ev.er to complete.

Not so much because it was hard, because it really wasn't.  It was somewhat time consuming, but not hard.  No, it took forever because we've had a VERY hot summer!   I'm not a big fan of H O T.  So, I stopped working outside during the dog days of summer recently.  But I finally pushed through and got it done a few weeks ago.

I mostly used plants I already had by moving them from other, not so clean, locations.  Or finally planting potted plants in the ground!  Can you believe I had a catmint plant that lasted two years in the pot I bought it in! 

I do need to put more sand in the "joints" and put some topsoil and grass seed in the areas I overshot when I was cutting the beds out with my spade.


I guess thinking I'm "done" is overrated. LOL


But considering when I bought this house two and half years ago the only landscaping were the boxwoods and white rocks...I'm pretty pleased with my progress....and so are my neighbors.

Hopefully I can show the final fence photos soon. But for now, I am completely in love with my pergola...and my finished border project! :)

I'm SO Excited!

You will never believe what has happened around here the last few days!

Remember this post from several years ago?  Fencing Drama.

Oh wait!  No, it only FELT like years ago.  ;)

After almost three months of tripping over 18 fence panels, 18 bags of concrete, fence posts, fence post covers, caps, screws, brackets, the lawn mower in the garage....it is DONE!!!

OH YEAH!!! :)

Ok, maybe not done, done.  But the privacy fence portion is done. And let me tell you....that is HUGE!! :)

I owe a HUGE, MEGA - THANK YOU - to my ex-husband!!  Seriously he worked so hard for three days during his vacation time to help me install this fence!  

Instead of fully enclosing the yard in a privacy fence.  I have opted to install pickets along the front side.  (And hopefully a trellis with gate here as well.)  But that will have to wait for me to find more funds.  I'm sure you understand. ;)

At least in the mean time, I no longer have to look out my kitchen window or sit in my back yard to see this lovely view.  

The abandoned house that has sit there for 2 and half years empty and unclaimed by a bank/person/city or anyone else who should take responsibility for mowing it and spraying the carpenter bees or any other type of maintenance. :(

I had to trim the tree along the backside.  It looks kind of strange now, so some trimming is definitely in the works.  And excuse the work station table randomly sitting in the yard.  I was SOOO stinkin' excited about getting the fence up I couldn't wait to post about it! 

I can't see a soul from most of the yard now!  And they can't see me either!

So.......you know what that means, right?

Yep, I can lay out in the nude now!

I'm JOKING! LOL

No...it means I can start thinking about borders and plants and flowers!!  Adding a tree.  A patio.  A garden path (even though my yard isn't that big).  All the fun stuff. (No, all of this will NOT take place this year, but a girl has to start somewhere.) 

WOW!  I'm exhausted, and excited, just thinking about it! :)

Do you think I can do anything about my neighbors crooked mailbox that has to sit on my side of the street?

Anywho....I will post "Lessons Learned" later this week for anyone who is crazy enough to consider installing a fence themselves. :)

Fencing Drama

Hi Ladies (and any possible Gents)!! :)

So, the math placement test is done and I'm relieved!  I have no idea how I did...but I have my suspicions.  And they are not good.  College-Kindergarten Entry Level Math is in my near future.  LOL

So, back to telling you about my weekend (last weekend...yeah, I'm a little behind).  I will caution you....this is a L O N G post. :)

Because of our family addition this year, Lucy my brothers Pug, (aka - Smoosh-aroni, Bugsy, Lucy Lou, Lucy Luber, Snots, Snots-alot, etc)...

Isn't she precious?  Notice the tongue sticking out! :)

I have moved "Privacy Fence" to the top of the list for this years large project.

It's always been on the dream list...but since Ms. Lucy likes to chase the UPS truck, the mail truck, school buses (and the kids that get on/off said school buses), and the fact that she could spend hours a day just sniffing in which I'm not really fond of just following her sniffing nose around that long....fencing got moved to the top of the list.

I had planned ahead financially for this project before losing my job, so I am taking the risk and moving forward with this project.

Recently Lowe's had vinyl panels on sale, so I jumped!  They went from $44 to $29 a panel!  That's pretty substantial savings when you need 18 panels.

I have mentioned before that I drive a Nissan Sentra.  Not exactly a 'hauling' vehicle.

So, to save money on delivery, I rented a truck from Menards (Lowe's doesn't rent by the hour trucks anymore).  And my ex-husband and I picked up all the panels and post covers the next day....in a terrantial downpour!!!  And just as an added bonus...lightning. ;)  But it was the only day/time my ex could help.

The panels have sat in my shed since then...until last weekend.

The weather was nice here in Indy last weekend, so I figured why not start the fencing project.  My friend and her husband had offered to help.

To get a start on the project, I started measuring and screwing the brackets into the fence posts. 

Problem #1, first post in and I realized that the post covers were not going to be long enough!!!  This was the post Lowe's told me to get!!!

Remember....I rented a truck to get these posts and now they all had to be returned and I had to buy new posts!!

I returned them in my SENTRA...2 loads!  I talked to the store manager and the manager who told me to buy these posts and explained how I rented a truck and now didn't have a truck and the inconvenience that was caused.  So, they gave a nice discount to cover another truck rental.

Clearly NOT my fence!

Source

Problem #2....it was a beautiful Spring weekend in Indianapolis.  No one had trucks available for rent! 

Several hours later, two more loads in the Sentra later and I had my new, long enough, posts.  Most of the day Saturday was now wasted...but not a total loss.

Not even close to being my home or fence!

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Problem #3....the new posts, although they said they were 4x4 vinyl fence post covers....were not QUITE a full 4x4 inside!!!!  So, the treated wood fence post that goes inside....did NOT fit inside the second set of covers!!!!!!!

But, keeping my can-do spirit alive, I realized I must need a different size fence post for these. 

So, back to Lowe's I went. 

Apparently, nope....they don't sell smaller fence posts to fit inside!!  WHAT?!?!?  Why do they even make/sell it then?  The guy at Lowe's had no idea of course...although he was extremely helpful and sympathetic.

Now, let me tell you.  I am a very strong woman.  Challenges to me are just that...a challenge.  A blip God put in my path for a reason I don't yet know....but I'm sure it's a perfect reason because it's HIS reason.  So, typically, I just go with the challenge and move forward.  I don't let it get me down.

So for that reason, I rarely cry.

But I found myself sitting in my car with tears welled up in my eyes. 

If I had bit off more than I could chew, I would wave the white flag, and yell surrender.  No big deal...I tried.  But I hadn't gotten that far!  I couldn't wrap my head around why these post covers were manufactured in this way...and no one could explain it to me either!

A girl can dream fence.....which isn't mine.

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Enter Problem #4.  My next option was to move up to a 5x5 sleeve....for a 4x4 post.   Again....WHY???  This wasn't going to be sturdy if you have a 1 inch gap all the way around the post inside.

So, this time I felt I needed to know what other options were out there.  So, I went to Home Depot.  The girl and guy in the contractor's section were very helpful.  Basically, they had the same options.  The man at Home Depot said I would have to place shims in the top and bottom of each post sleeve where the brackets will screw in.

Again....WHY???  Why not just make a 4x4 sleeve that would fit over the STANDARD 4x4 wood fence post?

This is where I swear my name was used!!!!  The girl said, "Erin, I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

I didn't really think about it until I left!!  I just said it was ok and then got in my car and was like..."did she just say my name?!?"

Has this ever happened to you?  I didn't give her my name...no credit card info was given or anything like that.  Anyway...I just blew it off and assumed I must have heard her wrong in all my frenzy.  But I must admit...I'm still curious if she actually said my name or not.  :)

Anywho, after that I went back to Lowe's and bought (only a few this time) 5x5 posts and finally called it a night at 9:30.  I was feeling totally defeated!!

I called my friend and told her I was nowhere near ready for their help on Sunday. 

So, Sunday morning, after a good nights rest, I felt re-energized.  I put my post inside my too large cover and headed to Lowes to find a 7/8" shim. 

Maybe someday mine will look this good.

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Problem # 5.  All the treated wood was either too big or too small to use as a shim!!! 

So, I talked to the guy in the wood section and asked his opinion on what I should do.  We walked around looking and discussing options when he said we should check the Patio and Porch Section (near the wood....not the outdoors stuff).  And don't you know, there was the perfect length, 4x4 vinyl post cover that actually fit a 4x4 post inside of it!!  AND it was sturdier than the stuff in Lawn and Garden too!!!!!  It was a little extra cost, but with the discount the manager was giving me, it was still a manageable change.

Trellis Love!  Also NOT mine.

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Problem #6 - They didn't have enough in stock!  So, I've been having to just stop in and pick them up as they have them.  Why they can't order them I'm not sure, but I was told they could check another store, but they couldn't order them.  Whatever...I can only fit FIVE in my Sentra at a time anyway.

So....you can imagine my excitement when my ex came over yesterday to help me with my fence!!  We (mostly him) got two poles concreted into the ground yesterday and ONE panel up!!!!!!!  It was very exciting!!

Oh please!  Only in my dreams would this be mine.

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Problem #7 - The gate was smashed when he took it out of the wrapping.  We took it back to Lowe's....only to find out the other ones on the rack were in even worse shape!! 

So...now I have to wait until they get more in stock or have my ex or his girlfriend drive with their SUV (because it just ain't fittin' in a Sentra) all over Indianapolis to find another one in stock. 

Inconvenient for sure.  But I'm not letting, yet another, set back on the "Fencing Drama" hold me back! 

It might take months at this rate, but I WILL have a fence at some point! :)  

And it will be as beautiful as the ones in this post...............I hope. ;)