Fence Half Finished

I have to be honest, I am not too pleased with Rick's right now. They did a fine job installing our fence, but their quote was for only half the fence and I didn't realize it. We had a long conversation about wanting both sides, along with the details about height and extras. I'd made a lot of compromises from the earlier quote, i.e. shorter overall height, skipping the post caps, trellis only in the section next to the house, so I wasn't surprised when the overall total was quite a bit lower. But, it turns out, they didn't quote out the whole fence. 

They finished this side of the fence then sent the final invoice and I was confused and asked when they'd be installing the rest....

Clearly, I should have looked a lot more closely at the bid and compared the total linear feet, but I was distracted and rushed to make a decision. Sigh.

Anyway, given that they only gave us a bid for half the fence, they were by far the most expensive of our quotes. So, when we do the other side after the roof and gutters are finished, we'll be going to one of the other companies.

At the last minute, we decided to dispose of the old fence ourselves. It saved us $250 and we got to pick through for the parts worth reusing.

New Fence Install Day 1

Rick's Custom Fencing and Decking started our project today. They are actually starting by doing one side this week because our neighbor was really anxious for it to be finished in time for a party, then they'll come back in a week to two to finish the other side of the yard. As a reminder, this is the style of fence we're getting for the most visible portions. 

They made short work of the old fence and had it removed in about an hour. They basically cut it into sections and then chopped the posts off at the dirt line if they didn't easily pull out.

Today they finished setting the posts in cement. Tomorrow, they'll be back to install the slats between.

We'll spend a couple hours digging through the wood pile tomorrow for portions we want to keep. I sort of like playing with salvaged wood. If we make another round of garden benches, we'll pass them onto friends.

Projects This Summer

We haven't been posting lately because we haven't been doing any house-related projects. But, starting next week, we're finally kicking off some projects. Starting on Tuesday, we are finally getting our Interlock Roof installed. Given the astronomical cost of their roofs, it's rather surprising their backlog is so long. I'm sure LeafGuard Gutters will be happy to finally get our job off their books.

This past winter, our fence fell over in high winds. (I really wish I'd remembered to take a photo.) Right now, it's propped up with boards and our neighbor is anxious about getting it replaced. I wanted a fence that looked like this but we got a quote for it and it was more than $20,000! LOL This fence is apparently $86/linear foot.

So, instead we decided to compromise and get something less expensive. The most-visible parts will have lattice, the rest won't and we decided to skip the expense of post caps. It will be about half the cost of the other. If we weren't already spending so much on the roof and gutters, we probably would get the more expensive fence, but there are limits on how much we can absorb in a year.

Wunderful List

I found a new To Do list application, called Wunderlist, that I've only been using for a couple days but I'm already a big fan. While I don't really like that it's online (and therefore unusable without internet), the ability to share the To Do list with Jeff makes up for it.

Even though we could build task lists on our MacBooks, I was never happy with how to deal with recurring tasks. Wunderlist makes them super easy. Once you finish a task, it automatically reenters the next occurrence on your list. Now we just need to go through and enter all the recurring tasks in our lives. :D

I've also been digging through all my assorted lists and consolidating them in this one place. After such a long break from house projects, you can be sure we had a lot of projects go astray. I'm now getting my projects back on track.

For the three days I've been using Wunderlist, it has already helped. When I have a little bit of time to kill, I can just go look at my list and see if there is any quick task I can fit in. This morning, I had about half an hour before we went off on our day's adventure; just enough time to finish painting the basement window frame.

Or, if I don't feel like doing a task (like staining the fence) having the huge list helps me get off my ass to do it. I see how many things I have coming up and know I can't afford to not finish today's project. So, I am now making pretty steady progress on projects.

The next big project in our plan is the master bathroom. I am currently trying to find reproduction period tile, which will surely be the most expensive part of the project. Once we have tile figured out, we'll probably prepare for demo. Especially now that the basement bathroom is nearly operational. :)

Note to Self: Stain the Wood BEFORE Building the Fence

I finished the first coat of opaque stain on the fence. Holy shit, staining around the diamonds is a pain in the ass. I had hoped I could be done after this first coat, but the tannin staining is pretty bad in some areas.

My current plan is to quickly apply a second coat and call it good enough. :)

Fence Staining Started

I applied the first coat of stain on the fence, but I still have a lot of detail work still to do on the diamonds. Wow, this sucks. I can't help repeating in my head how much easier this would have been if I stained the wood BEFORE we built the fence, as originally planned. I let that beautiful new cedar wood and rain distract from the plan. Doh.

Jeff also went over the pergola with the stain again and touched up light spots, so that is basically done now. :) Once we clear away some of the overgrown bushes, we'll take better photos.

Pergola Stained

Jeff got the first coat done today! As a reminder, we are using opaque white stain, not paint.

We should cut back that bush that is blocking the view, but it's covered with tasty berries. Once berry season is over, we'll chop it back severely and take some better photos.

I went out to start staining the fence, but I noticed the top board was still black from being under the black walnut tree, so I ended up scrubbing it down instead. Hopefully it will be dry enough tomorrow to start staining.

Pressure Washing Exterior Woodwork

Now that we've finished the sewing room, our next project is to finish staining the pergola and side fence. I regret not staining the wood for the fence before we built it, but the wood was just so pretty, it was tough to put an opaque white stain on it. Then, when we installed the pergola, it started raining while we were staining and we didn't get everything done — it's finally time.

Today, Jeff is working on pressure washing them so they're nice and clean before we start staining. Thanks Jeff!

Yeah, the yard got a little overgrown once we got rid of the chickens. We really didn't realize how much of the vegetation they prevented. Hopefully we'll get the yard cleaned up too. It's gotten pretty overgrown during the two years of neglect.

Ultimately, we plan to finish the floor of the pergola with a mix of urbanite (concrete chunks) and leftover salvaged bricks. Something like this. Maybe not that fancy. LOL

Side Fence Built

I am so excited because it is built!! And am I ever happy with how it turned out.

Eric and Jeff built both gates today and they made the process look fairly easy.

The side of the house is still looking a little ghetto because there are piles of gravel and other scrap, but it should look better when we get to the chicken coop next month because all that loose building material will end up going back into the chicken coop and runs.

I still have to finish the fence with a clear coat or with our white stain, but I am appreciating this project being this much done for now. I just love it when projects turn out how you plan them. Excuse me, I have to take another look.

Side Fence Progress

At long last, we got started on the side fence. For perspective, this is our goal for the project.

We hired a friend, Eric, to come out and help us for a day as it would give us the push we needed to get this project rolling along. Even though it was fairly hot outside, working under the shady walnut tree was quite pleasant.

This is the nasty temporary "fence" Jeff cobbled together from old fence parts. We needed some kind of boundary to keep the chickens in the backyard and, hey, this was free since it was made from leftover bits removed during our renovation.

Once the four posts were set in concrete, Jeff and Eric installed the bottom supports.

And once the bottom support posts were in, the construction went very quickly because very little cutting was actually required.

And then they spent a couple hours making and futzing with the little diamonds. They actually ended up changing the size a bit from the original plan; Jeff made them smaller.

We still have to build the gate, but this part of the fence went together faster than I expected. I'm still debating whether to leave it the natural cedar finish, or whether I stain with the white opaque fence stain (the color of the fence it is perpendicular to). I had planned to stain it before the fence was put together but all that rain set us behind schedule and then the photo shoot brought outdoor projects to a halt.

Fence Started

Well, we're moving at a turtle's pace, but we've gotten started on the fence. We went off last Friday and bought the wood.

We bought the wood at Custom Cedar Products and I need to rave about their fabulous service. We went in with our drawings and a materials list. After we'd talked to a salesman for a few minutes, the owner, Chris Bilyeu, came through the lobby and started talking to us. He spent probably 40 minutes helping us and offered some great advice about what materials he would use and how he would construct it. (I was not paid or compensated for this opinion; I just wanted to share the good experience we had in case other folks in Portland were looking for fence materials.)

The boards we bought are fuzzy on one side, which I didn't like, so we planed the boards over the weekend. This is the first time we've used our planer. It's a good thing we didn't try and do it inside the garage. That sawdust really flies!

Today, Jeff finished digging the post holes. The walnut tree has some really huge roots in that area. He had to cut one of them—this root was bigger than Jeff's arm.

Now I'm trying to decide if I stain first and install, or if we install it then stain. It rained today on the wood, so it may be the latter.

Crazy Fence Plan

We're hoping to install a fence in this side yard that spans the driveway.Today we came up with a preliminary fence plan. It might be way-too-complicated for us to build ourselves, but we might give it a try anyway.

We're gathering prices for the wood now and also shopping around for tools.

Fence is In

Jeff and our neighbor, Jim, put in the fence yesterday morning.

Then this morning Jeff and I finished up painting the last panel. We are finally done!

Jeff and I do still need to paint the installed portion of the backyard fence the prior owners installed earlier this year before we bought the house. I'm hoping we'll find the motivation later this week. =)

We are currently talking with the neighbor about some possible post caps for the fence posts. I'm hoping for something along the lines of copper caps or, even better, a french gothic cap like this, because then it would match the fence on the other side (that shared with the other neighbor).

Still Painting

We're still working on painting the fence. It's taking longer than we expected. We have mostly finished painting all the unassembled parts, but we still have several panels remaining. It's been a struggle painting with the heat this week, because if it gets too hot the paint dries too fast. Today, it is mercifully cooler. Though, so far, we haven't gotten started on painting. We worked on another project we've been wanting to do for a while.

We finally put together our master bedroom upstairs. Now that fall is approaching, we'd like to get started on getting the upstairs bedroom set up. Today, we put the bed together. And now I'm working on assembling the Roman shades.














I finished sewing on the rings a couple of weeks ago, but we hadn't yet found the tools to hang them. Jeff found those this morning. In this photo I've just set the shade in the window, it still needs to be hung properly. It's a good thing they're temporary because they're a little small for the opening. I think my next shades need to be sized to hang on the front of the window frame instead of being inset.

Painting Fence Boards

Our side fence is in pretty bad shape. When we first moved in, our neighbor, Jim, talked to us about the fence. He was happy to buy the wood and assemble the new pieces, but he didn't like painting fences, so we agreed to do it. So, this morning we spent about 3 hours painting fence boards, until it just got too hot. The paint was drying much too fast in the heat.

Over the weekend, Jim started assembling sections and we started with painting those, but then we realized how much more work it was to paint assembled sections so we abandoned that effort in favor of painting the fence boards for him to use when assembling the next sections. I think it will save us a lot of time if we can paint the wood before he assembles the pieces.

Despite thinking we had decided which remodeler to go with, I found some pretty crummy reviews on Angie's List for the company we were so enthusiastic about on Thursday. And then we met with Green Hammer again on Sunday to look over one of their completed jobs and it raised their performance in my estimation, so we're back to not knowing which to choose.

So, in an attempt to gather more information, yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours calling references for each of the contractors. Unfortunately, it hasn't really helped; all of the folks I called gave very glowing reviews and barely managed to come up with any problems with their jobs.

Tonight we are going to meet a lady who switched to Green Hammer from Craftsman Design and Renovation after the initial design phase of her job. We're going to go and talk with her about her reasons for switching, and we're going to see the work that Green Hammer did for her. I'd really like it if we could decide this week which company to hire! I'm eager to have this decision settled so we can move on to the next task on our list!