On the fence

So we've been plugging away at the house, little by little.  One of the problems we had was that our house is on the middle of the block and had no fence in the back yard.  That meant that anyone could cut through, and a lot of people did.  We were always picking up beer cans and other trash from the back and side of the house.  We also had zero privacy.  Quite often we'd be working in our back yard, only to find people cutting through, once even stepping over the wood we were cutting.   So we planned early on to put up a fence. 

Months ago we found a guy on craigslist selling some old fence bits.  We drove over and picked up as much fence and posts as we could carry for just $100.   It was so heavy, we nearly tore the roof rack off the poor old Previa in the process.  

Oddly, we were allowed to get our permits for this fence work.  The lady behind the desk said, "well, you're going to do this work anyway, if its a single or duplex."  I replied that we were going to fix the plumbing if it was a single or duplex, but that seemed to fall on deaf ears.  In any case, we're happy that we could at least put up the fence before the frozen ground made that impossible. 

Rather than wrestling with shovels, we just went ahead and rented a 2-man auger.  It was the biggest tool that Effie or I have ever used and took a bit of skill to get used to.   Being as it took 2 people to operate it, no one was available for photos, so I photoshopped this image to give you an idea of what we look like operating it.  We realized we forgot the shovels which are needed to move the dirt away from the holes so dad brought them over and helped us auger the last holes as well. 

Then in with the posts and cement, wait a few days for it to harden (it takes longer in the cold weather), then up with the fence.  We put some pieces along the side of the house to completely enclose the area.

When it was done, we just sat and looked at it.  It completely transformed the house.  It was as if we now had our own space.  Before our house still felt like public property.  There was zero privacy and people always in our yard.   Now we HAVE a yard and privacy and it finally felt like ours.   Awesome. 

While we were waiting for the cement to dry, we spent a couple days spackling the holes in the wall.   We fixed a couple of the bigger ones with drywall today.  We'll get to sanding tomorrow. 

We've also been painting over the graffiti with a Kilz primer, its almost all gone.  

We bought 3 pieces of glass, 2 to fix broken windows and 1 to make a transom over our new interior doorway.   Unfortunately, I cracked that piece while using the nail gun to put the trim around it.  I must have just nicked it.  The crack doesn't go all the way up, so we're still going to use it.  We thought about frosting that piece anyway, so the crack won't show much.