Made a few jigs that I was pretty proud of. This jig put the top board flush on the opposite side of the fence, resulting in the top board leaning over onto our side with enough material to cover two rows of pickets, along with our top trim.
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.
A large part of our morning was receiving the delivery from Menards, and then relocating everything from the end of the driveway down near the backyard.
Liz, who stood perfectly still as our bunny guest walked right by hear to get to the backyard. Bold bunny, indeed!
Big day today – finally, finally, we’re getting our back fence back up. Well, the post part of it, anyways.
Ever since our fence got damaged last year, we were talking about replacing it. A few things happened – we relocated to Georgia for a few months. Then we got back, and then before we knew it Winter showed up, and so we decided to wait until the Spring.
Liz cut the first tube we used by hand, but I was way too impatient for that. I ended up using the sawzall, and made a kind of impromptu jig on a piece of plywood (that worked out… ok, but could have been better).
For the height of our fence, we decided to make it flush with our back porch (just slightly about 6′, which I think is code). Our plan is to have a 2×6 top board that will sit on the top of the fence… so I made this rough jig to help identify how high we needed the post to be. Worked out pretty well!
Liz, literally stopping to smell the roses.
A side effect from yesterday’s work outside: Liz got several bad blisters on her hands.
This, despite wearing gloves. If that gives you any indication of how much she was out there working.
Liz did a lot of digging today. With so much time having elapsed (we have a terrible Home Depot story, that’s still in progress)… several of the holes collapsed on themselves. And required more digging.
In the evening, we were hanging out in the yard and noticed a small bunny just chillaxing. Despite Liz moving around and doing some light yard work nearby, this guy didn’t really budge.
With our recent fence removal work, it was easier for them to walk down our driveway and bop across the various backyards. While they are all covered up with plywood and bricks, I still made sure to warn them about the post hole holes.
Well, today they came back. And when I peeked outside to see what was happening I was surprised to find not one but two guys removing tree limbs. While up in the trees!
One challenge: in some spots, we had some seriously large roots that had grown over the concrete. So we had to break out the sawzall and cut through a lot of material, to make space for the concrete to come out.
Just so it’s clear: Liz and I purchased a Farm jack, for the post removals. We decided that our prior approach wasn’t good enough, and the right tool for the job (to get the whole post out of the ground) was something we needed to purchase.
So today, if things go well, there would be little to no lifting at all. And our goal would be to let the jack do most of the work. And for me, to let Liz do most of the work, due to my back.
Our approach involved getting a bottle jack under a few 2x4s, screwed into the side of the post. We balanced things on a 2×6 board, that was sitting on a series of 2×4 blocks.