Catching up: Painting the Fence

We re-used the privacy fence in the backyard.  Since the new fence line is shorter than the old one, we picked out the best panels to install.  We no longer wanted the green fence, since it doesn't match with the new house colors. 

Step One: Scraping off the peeling paint

Step Two: Power Wash

It was kind of satisfying to see the paint come off with the power washer!

Step Three: Stain the fence

It looks so much nicer now!!!

We hung the hardware & gate on the gray fence, and the dog can now run free again!

Finishing the Fence

The fence company came back and finished installing the new fence, and also moved the sections of the old privacy fence that we were keeping.  It used to follow the property line out, but we decided to move the line of the fence in and square it off with the house and the new patio.

 

The gate was originally planned to be one big piece, but I had concerns about it opening out to the driveway.  It definitely would have hit the car.  We decided to change it to be two pieces at the entrances from the driveway, and still the single big gate at the entrance to the back of the yard.

Here is the reverse of the gate closest to the house... 

Here is the single-door gate:

I love the heavy-duty hardware they used:

We had to leave two sections of the privacy fence open where it meets the new fence, so that the landscaper can still get in & out with the heavy equipment.  He still has some leveling to do and is going to add some fill dirt near the fence so that the dog will not escape!  Mike will do those last two sections himself.

So close...

New Fence!

While all of the pathway stone & brick work was being completed, we were busy picking out our new fence for the inside of the yard (to replace the white picket fence that runs along the driveway).

We picked a square picket that goes with the Colonial style of the house.  Of course, the one we picked had to be custom made, so it took a while to get it.

They arrived on a Friday and installed most of it...

We LOVE it!  

Here's a shot of the corner post with the cap in place:

I was really impressed with the fence company's attention to detail... look at how they even cut the length of the pickets on an angle! They answered a ton of questions we had about putting in the gates, and gave us a selection of gate pulls to choose from.  

The fence guys will be back in a week to do the gates and the last panels of pickets in the back (we still need to be able to get the tractors in there for moving dirt right now).

Then & Now #2

There are so many changes that have taken place since we moved in.  Some of them I completely forgot about until looking at the old photos from when we had the home inspection before we moved in.

Here's a picture of more fencing around the garage. You can see it on the left side of this photo taken from the front porch, the weekend we moved in... That little fence was just to keep deer out and was very easy to remove.  It's a good sun spot- so we put my picking garden here.

The other thing missing is the pretty tree in the field.  That came down during Hurricane Sandy.  I'm very sad about that.

This probably isn't the best comparison, since the top photo was taken in April, and the bottom in July.  It does point out that the forsythia bush is due for a trim!

Then & Now...

A quick Friday post...

There are so many changes that have taken place since we moved in.  Some of them I completely forgot about until looking at the old photos from when we had the home inspection before we moved in.

I thought I'd share a few every now & then :)

There was a chain link fence for a dog yard. One of the first things we did when we moved in was put it on Craigs List for free, they just had to come remove it.

Mike built the tree swing, and moved the little red shed to a more convenient spot for toy storage.
You can see the playset positioned over on the left edge of the photo.  This is a nice shaded area, so we also put our old little playhouse here (though it's days are numbered! The boys now play on it by climbing on the roof... So I think we're just about done with the plastic toys.  We ditched the well-used crab sandbox last year!)

A Little Thunderstorm?!?

Last Monday I came home after work to find the baby goats loose in the driveway... uh-oh, that's not good!

Turns out there was a 15 minute thunderstorm that wreaked havoc on our yard- we lost a total of 5 trees (almost as bad as Hurricane Sandy!  But thankfully, this time we only lost power for 1 day!)

A big walnut tree that was in the goat yard completely uprooted.  Thank goodness the goats (and chickens) weren't hurt, and it didn't fall on the barn.

But it did take down the fence...

Our older goat stayed in the yard, but the little guys thought it was party time & climbed the tree right over the fence!

Then I turned around and saw half a pine tree had gone down across the back driveway entrance...

That one broke two sections of the white picket fence.  

(Luckily it just fell short of the bigger privacy fence!)

After checking the rest of the property, we found three more trees down in the back.  

Happily, two of those fell onto the brush pile anyway! 

<looking for a silver lining>

Just when we thought we had the yard in pretty good shape... 

(we had literally just been saying this on Sunday!)  

Our biggest concern that night was finding a place to put the goats.  We moved their stuff over to the horse barn, and put them in one of the stalls.  They were NOT happy (they didn't have free access to the outside from there) but at least they were safe.

Each afternoon, we let the goats out for "play time", while Mike was cutting up the tree & fixing the goat yard fence.  Definitely not how we had planned to spend our evenings last week!

Next we tackled the tree across the driveway.  I didn't realize how much we used both driveway entrances until this one was blocked!

The rest of the trees are going to take a while, but at least the most disruptive stuff is cleaned up!

The Arbor is Looking Pretty!

After fixing up the picket fence, it was time to address the arbor/gate.
It was badly needing to be scraped & painted.

The photos say it all!

My parents were visiting last week, and mom worked on it with the boys while we were at work.
We decided to use a white stain, instead of paint.  This way, it won't chip away as it ages, it'll just fade- and we can add future coats without having to scrape.

I drove in the driveway to see this...  HUGE difference!

Mom even touched up all the hardware with black paint

<---In this photo, you can see the arbor is laughing at the picket fence on the left!

The fence pickets didn't look too bad before... but now... well, we'll just add it to the list!

Fence Finally Finished

Mike finished staining the fence last week.  It took a total of 3 cans of stain (5 gallons each) and roughly three days to complete!
Here it is...

It looks a little greener in the photo than it does in person

Here it is from the road side.  

Since we leveled the yard a little bit, there are big dirt patches running the length of the fence.  

We've put down grass seed there, so hopefully that will fill in soon!

Next stage will be finishing up the flower beds inside the yard, and planting trees on the road side of the fence.

Related posts:

Fence Installation
Staining the fence