About a Fence

My parents were in town this past weekend. Steve and I took the opportunity to do something about our sad excuse for a fence.

Early stages of demolition:

We had propped up the existing fence with rebar to prevent its complete disintegration after a large section collapsed on to the sidewalk last winter. Many of the pickets were broken and the only thing holding the whole mess together was Steve's liberal application of nails. All that being said, we put off the project in favor of indoor projects that more significantly impacted our daily life.

My dad and Steve survey the cleared site:

Steve and I have been obsessively fence-spotting around town for many months, trying to decide on a design that would fit well with our little house and yard. My parents were on the road, headed toward Santa Cruz, and we still hadn't decided what we wanted to do. Somewhat frustrated, I said we should just try to salvage the existing pickets and any structure we could... an idea that might sound far-fetched given my previous description of the fence, but it worked out beautifully.

Steve tamps down the earth around a newly-placed redwood-clad post:

Though many pickets were destroyed, there were two panels worth of pickets on a section of fence lining our neighbor's side yard fence (visible in the background of the first picture above). These pickets were in perfect condition, and we were able to use the panels in our new fence design, which only spans the front property line.

Installing a panel:

The previous fence was snugged up against the sidewalk, but Steve, my parents and I agreed that constructing the fence back several inches from the sidewalk gave the whole thing a better look, and will allow Steve and I to put in some plantings in front of the fence.

It was a lot of work. There was all the usual posthole digging, panel building and picket-attaching. The project was made more complex by the marginal condition of some of the pickets we needed to use, requiring Steve to repair them with a combination of small nails, wood glue and putty. The pickets are the original redwood and have a subtly different design from the commercially available pickets, so there was no ordering more. Steve does wonderful work, of course, so everything turned out beautifully.

I (in my super fashionable gardening hat) install the final post cap:

We used pressure-treated wood for the posts, but Steve has always hated the pockmarked look of pressure-treated lumber, so we clad the posts in redwood veneers. It turned out beautifully.

After a long weekend's work:

I'll be spending my July 4th long weekend painting the fence. It will be a uniform white when complete.

I am eternally appreciative of my dad's drive, vision and enthusiastic help. And if you noticed that the yard got better looking along with the progression of the fence, my mother is responsible for that. She did a ton of work weeding and cleaning the yard, for which I am also grateful. Steve was, as always, meticulous and hard-working throughout. A great product from a great team.