New Fence Install, Day 14: Trim Installed
It’s been a busy time for us, with most of our attention focused on the inside of the house. And this last week, Liz had been pretty sick (and spent most of the last weekend, recuperating).
We found ourselves with an open Saturday. And Liz felt ok enough to work outside, so we tackled one of the remaining steps for the fence: applying the upper and lower trim.
A nice thing about the trim: it’s meant to hide all our sins (for any picket that isn’t perfectly aligned to its neighbor).
While I was setting things up in the yard, I walked back to the end of the fence and realized… I left something here when I was last working on the fence (which would have been almost two months ago, before our trip to Scotland).
You can see it at the top left.
Surprisingly, it’s not too rough despite being out here for that time. Still, ugh.
Liz, handling the trim cuts on the other side of the arbor.
An interesting challenge for us: when we set the fence posts, the line we used was snagged on a tree branch.
We tried to compensate when installing the top rail, and the cap board. But it’s not perfectly level… and we weren’t sure what this would mean for our trim.
Making decent progress along the top.
We paced pretty well, and despite some menacing clouds… got started on the bottom trim. This got a bit trickier, since the ground moves a lot, up and down.
When we determined the bottom of the pickets, we used a board that we laid across the ground… to get things roughly lined up. For the bottom trim, we went up about 1 3/4″ and tried to attach each board to that offset.
Lots of fun, pushing in to all the plants.
Upper and lower trim.
Looking back at the yard. It’s hard to tell, but the pickets and the trim aren’t quite 90’s. It’s subtle but it’s there, but you really have to look for it.
The pickets should perpendicular to the ground (we were putting levels to them, as we installed each one). But against the cap board amd trim, it’s a bit off.
Good thing for us, we’re going to paint everything black – which is another way we’ll hide our sins.
The last bit remaining: we have a section of fence that’s tight against our back deck. We’ll need to paint these pieces first, before installing (because it’d be a huge pain to try to paint them, after install).
Always another step. But closer to done!
I wore an older pair of jeans while working – and good thing, since they were pretty threadbare. Guess these are my work jeans from here on out.
Related:
New Fence Install, Day 13: Pickets are Done!
New Fence Install, Day 12: Working Behind the Deck
New Fence Install, Day 11: (Almost) Closing the Gap
New Fence Install, Day 10: Working with an Audience
New Fence Install, Day 9: Small Progress
New Fence Install, Day 8: Second Row of Pickets Begins
New Fence Install, Day 7: Even More Pickets
New Fence Install, Day 6: More Pickets
New Fence Install, Day 5: Middle Rail and First Pickets
New Fence Install, Day 4: Top Board, Continued
New Fence Install, Day 3: Top Board Begins
New Fence Install, Day 2: Unexpected Rain and Hail, Working from Another Yard
New Fence Install, Day 1: Arguments and Angles
Setting the New Fence Posts
Sonotube Cuts
First Fence Post
Fun addendum: from around 1:30 PM onward, the sky was really overcast and on the verge of a storm. We finished all the trim, and Liz needed to head in to get ready for an event, so I was on my own to pack things up.
The moment she went inside, it started pouring rain. Couldn’t have timed it better.
avoision (October 21, 2025 at 8:27 pm)