Fence

I’ve been working, working, working like crazy in  the backyard to get a fence up before it gets too cold. Earlier this year I had an estimate from a fencing company to install a wooden stockade style fence, according to them it was going to cost me around $2,500 to go around the perimeter of my backyard. That was simply cost prohibitive so I decided I’d have to do it myself since over half  the cost was in labor.

One post at a time and one carload of lumber at a time,over the course of several weeks I was able to patch together a six foot privacy fence. It took much longer than I expected and was a job that would have gone much faster had I had a helper but I did it! I used the panorama option on my IPhone to take the pictures so you can get the whole idea of the backyard, the fence is not really bowed in the middle, that’s just how the phone patches together the pictures.

I also did the other side

I did not finish the fence behind the garage yet, and I’m not sure I will this year. I’m tired of fencing. I will however, add a gate between the garage and that segment of fence so I can hide my trashcan behind it and not have to open the garage every time I want to get to it. Once the wood dries out, I’ll also stain it and the pergola a semi-transparent dark brown hue. I would also like to add a gate to the front of the driveway. I was thinking something like this but only 4ft high.

The backyard is MUCH more private and I think it helps it look a bit more tidy. I am left wondering about a couple of things though. The first is that the driveway is very narrow and the gate needs to swing in. What type of hinges do I need in order to get the gate to tuck in neatly behind the 4×4 post when open as not to loose any additional space? The second, just how long do I need to wait to stain this? I’ve gotten a lot of conflicting advice, anywhere from 6 weeks to a year. I’m not keen on waiting a year and I don’t want to wait so long that it needs to be pressure washed before staining to clean it.