New Fence Install, Day 2: Unexpected Rain and Hail, Working from Another Yard

June 29, 2025

Today, we slept in a bit – having been pretty tired from yesterday’s fence work. We also expected today to be a scorcher, so we were wary about spending the entire day outside, given the temps we were expecting.

We got outside a bit after 11AM, and set about installing the remaining top rails. Liz and I had a pretty good system down from yesterday, so picking things up today felt fast.

Close to putting in the last top rail.

The skies and weather were helping/not helping today. I’m posting this here partly for validation, as Liz and I had differing concerns around weather.

I was worried about rain and the impact it would have on our cedar pickets/lumber. Liz wasn’t worried, because there wasn’t any rain in the forecast.

When the skies darkened a bit after noon, we got a mixture of rain and… hail, believe it or not.

Over the course of the afternoon, we had 4 or 5 moments where rain came down. It was hot outside all day, but the rains pulled the temps down briefly, before things got hot again. Still – it made for a nice reprieve, each time.

A custom top rail, connecting our last post to the neighbor’s post.

After we got done with the top rail, we began working on the bottom rail. Here at the back, I had trouble accessing the post from our yard… so I walked around to the block over, and randomly hit the buzzer for the large apartment building that’s kitty corner from our backyard.

Luckily, I got a hold of someone… and was able to get access to their backyard (so I could screw in our rails).

It’s a bit weird – but this is the view from the neighbor’s yard, looking in to our backyard.

The area I had trouble accessing is there at the bottom.

While I was here, Liz suggested we take the opportunity to also secure the middle rail.

Back in our backyard. While I was gone, Liz was installing the bottom rail all by herself.

It’s starting to take shape.

Standing in our neighbor’s backyard, looking back towards the buildings.

Standing in our neighbor’s backyard, looking away from the buildings.

We got a lot done today, finishing up the top rail and getting the bottom rail completely done.

At the rate we were going, I’m confident Liz and I could have finished the middle rail today as well (though it would have taken us another 2 hours, and would have left us a bit exhausted).

That said, we got a lot done and decided to call it quits a bit after 4PM. A full day, with a bit of time left in the evening for us to feel like we could still have a weekend.

The more we progress, the more we get to the quick/fast/rock-n-roll part of the fence install that I’ve been looking forward to. We still have a lot of details to work out, but we’ve been working faster and faster, which has been great feeling.

Looking forward to breaking out a siding nailer, and getting into a rhythm with the picket install. Soon soon.