backyard fence, part 6

all that's left on the backyard fence is to mount the gate and gate latch!


making sure the gate latch hits in the right place.


with the help of matt t., we mounted a sweet lantern that andrea found as a warm welcomer.



the backyard fence it finished! no back to the laundry room trim!

backyard fence, part 5

in order to maintain the style of fence panels, i need to assemble the gate with mortise and tenon joints. not my favorite task, but i'll try to be patient and do my best.



i like to use a spade drill bit to remove as much material as possible before using a hammer and chisle to square off the corners. your other option is to buy a mortise press.


if all is done right, your should get a nice smooth joint. if all is not done right, chisel more out and add more glue!


i was surprise at how much i got done in just a few hours. i'd say the mortise and tenon joints will be well worth the time i spent. now all i have to do is add the screen and mount the gate.

backyard fence, part 4

everything's done except for the gate!

backyard fence, part 3

andrea and i spend many hours flipping thru various magazines and books to fine a fence design we liked. our criteria was: natural looking, fairly transparent, simple to build, and inexpensive. we found a design in this old house's magazine that we thought would work if we adapted it.

here's our design:

start with a wood frame. we choose pressure treated. each panel consists of one 2x4x8 ripped down the middle. each piece is mitered and then a 1/4 inch groove is ripped down the middle of the cut side. corners are assembled with glue and one fence/deck screw.


this wire fence material is used within the frame.


sometimes you have to do a little jig on it to flatten it out!


the wire is cut and end to fit in each panel.


sometimes it take a while to get a perfect snug fit!


even townsend lent his expertise; 'looser dad! it needs to pop out easily!'



close off the forth end.


'enough of this fence stuff. let's go to the puppy park!'


this should hold the pup in.


once outside, the panels 'should' fit between the fence posts.


using the 1/4 inch groove, screw one fence/deck screw in and level and plumb the panel.


once level and plumb, screw in 3-4 screws on each side.

more updates to come!

backyard fence, part 2

so after are fence was laid out, and a new day dawned, i swung by home depot for an auger. definetley rent one of these if you have 'a lot' of fence post holes to dig; we had 9. it was totally worth it. it only took about 40 minutes!

fill the bottom six inches with gravel.


andrea enjoyed using out awesome neighbors wheel barrow!


townsend had to approve first. he did; although in hindsight he feels guilty that he lent his own paw to the building of a fence to keep him in line!


only had to use one bag of concrete [on the gate posts]. all of the other fence posts are held up by about 22 inches worth of a tamped-down mixture of gravel and soil.


the other side of the house's fence posts.

backyard fence, part 1

before you build a fence, you must rid the area of any obstacles. in our case, it would entail the deconstruction of this...'thing.'

we initially tried to dig 'it' out.


then we tried dismantling 'it.'


that worked to a certain extent.


then i reflected on my grandpa ehrhardt; and hooked my car up to 'it!'


not so much did this work. it broke the posts off at the ground. i had some grand illusions of the poles popping out of the ground. while this didn't work on the first post, it was fun to try on the other two!


andrea wielded a sledge hammer and went to town.


four hours later our fence was laid out.