Setting the Fence Straight

Well, I woke up at 5:50 A.M.  Not AT ALL what I planned on, but my mind was full of stuff, so sleep was elusive.  I let Dad know around 7:00 A.M. that I was ready for him!  He took off work today just so he could help!  Outsiders call this phenomenon "a glutton for punishment."

Well, since we were heading to the house, we figured we might as well fill up a truck with my first load of moving items.  Why drive an empty truck if you know you will have to move these items anyway, right?  So we figured we would grab my garage shelves and start with those first.

Well, wouldn't you know it, as soon as we arrived at the new house, we both looked at each other and asked, "So do you have the keys"?  Nope.  Nope.  So THAT was how our day was going to go, huh?!  We figured we might as well take advantage of our mistake and used it as a way to just load up on another truckload of moving items.

Filling up the garage FAST!!!

We brought over a LOT of stuff from my garage!  Where to put it all?!

Once we finally got back to the house WITH the key, we had a decision.  What to work on today?!  The good news with a long list is that you have a myriad of options to choose from!  We decided we would tackle the broken fence in the back.  When I bought the house, the long fence had been leaning forward.  It actually leaned so much that either the previous owner or more likely the foreclosure company had set up a lean-to post and tried to prop it up.  They even set out a bag of sand to hold up the post, and that had been so long that the bag was long gone, and only a mess of sand was left.

The fence falling forward.  Two fence posts were busted right at the ground from the rocks in the back.

Unfortunately for us, the fence posts had split right at the ground.  A commercial car dealership behind the property had installed MASSIVE amounts of white rock for a drainage ditch, and these heavy rocks appeared to put pressure on the fence.  Well, the 20-year-old fence couldn't hold, and so it fell forward.  I bought the property "as-is" so fault or not, it was mine to deal with.  We had set a goal of digging up two fence posts a day, so why not use that goal along with ANOTHER goal and kill two birds with one stone?!

So we set to digging.  And, agh, this fence company!!!  They set these posts deep!  And sturdy!  and strong!  Which is why the posts broke with the pressure!  Because underneath the ground, the post sure wasn't budging!  Each post was buried 2 1/2 feet deep in concrete.  We had a new tool with us today, though, and we set out to digging, then breaking the concrete with a breaker bar, then digging some far.  We certainly had better results.

The footings were DEEP!!!  It didn't help that the large rock rested right against the fence, either.  Hard to dig!

The work was tedious, though.  The fence is old.  So every time we took out nails, I chose to replace them with screws.  And we had to reset two brand-new fence posts hoping to line up with the old fence.  Measurements were basically silly at this point.  It only came down to, "Does it match up with the old one"?

We had to take three panels down.  Here is after one new post and panel is back up.

The old broken post on the rocks, the new post set.

Two broken posts on the ground, one new post set.

Basically why we had to do the project.  The rocks just pushed the fence forward, breaking two of the posts.

Two more sections to go.

So little by little, we started to see a fence take place.  But it was definitely slow-goin'.

We needed some tools from my house, so we headed back that way for lunch.  We picked up some concrete for the fence posts, and the afternoon was more of the same.  Remove the old fence, dig up the old posts, replace with new posts, and remount the old and weathered fence.

Finally, towards late afternoon, we had the project complete outside of the concrete curing.  It looks so much better.  The fence really needs to be replaced, but it's functional, should be durable, and it gets the job done.  For the cost of two new posts and sweat, the fence is back is business.

The massive fence is straight again!  Looks sharp!

After the fence, we started on two more projects.  Mom showed up after work (thanks, Ma!), and she and I both agreed that the garage paint job needed just a little bit of love.  When we showed up this morning, the sun just hit some un-sanded spots, and frankly, they showed quite a bit.  So she took the task of sanding and painting a fresh coat of paint on the rough spots.  I was a bit disappointed that I had to do some extra work when it was hired done, but then I remembered:  I paid a guy $100 to do this garage!  I can sure afford to spend a little bit of time and effort to make it sharp!  I'm still coming out way, WAY ahead.  So we just did it.  No loss.

The wall as I acquired the house.  Yuck!

The new white wall!  Gorgeous!

Dad and I took to the chore of starting to remove brush from the fence line.  I felt a bit bad about telling Mom, "Hey, thanks for coming out, you work here, and we'll be way over here!" but she obliged.  This fence line is...well, let's just say the fence line needs some work.  Basically, picture a decade's worth of overgrowth the width of my yard.  It's hard to know where to even begin on a task like this, but it basically comes down to, "One stick at a time."  So Dad and I started cutting down brush and loading it into my truck.  It's tedious...but necessary...work.

Mom finished with her painting in the garage, and we decided to tackle a MASSIVE paint project:  the deck!  So Mom and I started painting spindles on my deck while Dad loaded lumber into the back of my truck.

Before Dad started working on removing the brush.

And After!  Tree by tree, we are getting there!  Nice job, Pa!

WIDE LOAD!  The second load of brush from the fence line.

We sent Dad home with the brush for the burn pile, and Mom and I stayed behind to stain.  Oh, let me tell you, painting spindles is a royal pain!!!  Talk about tedious!  But having one person on the outside with one person on the inside made it go so, SO much better.  Each could be on the look-out for the other person's drops, and trust me, we had plenty of drops!

We stained until we could stain no more.  The sun had set, so we were forced to quit...which was fine by me.  It was a long day!  We headed home around 8:30 P.M.

Staining the spindles...such slow work!

Our progress for the evening.  One side of the deck has the railing all done.  Such slow work!

A very good day at the house.  The fence is finished, the deck is started, and the forest is going away.  One project at a time!!!