A new fence

Like most people who face something that requires throwing lots of money at it, we kept putting off replacing the old, flimsy, worn down lattice fence that defined the property line in our backyard with that of our next door neighbor.

Kim and I had talked about doing this for years, and even had an idea of what kind of fence we wanted to put up.

Just not now.

But "now" had finally arrived.

So we made the leap. Because we live in the Park Place Historic Neighborhood, I had to check in with the City of Lexington to obtain a certificate of appropriateness. This is now a simple and logical process that no longer requires historic district board approval. It's simply an administrative matter and the project was almost immediately approved by Trey Cleaton of Business and Community Development. Easy peasy.

We also hired A&K Quality Fencing out of High Point to do the work. This was a great decision because the company was also doing the fencing for our neighbor. It was kind of a two-for-one project.

At any rate, here is a brief photo essay of our new fence:

1). This is what our old lattice fence looked like. The posts were never grounded in concrete and the fence itself was bowed and coming apart in several places. Encroaching ivy creeped through the fence and some animals, like ground hogs, were able to burrow through and raid our vegetable garden. It had to go.

2). The old fence is down. There's a property line in there somewhere. The old fence post holes give us a clue, but at this point, it feels really odd to share a free-range yard with my neighbor.

3). The new fence is up. Technically, it's a pine wood dog ear fence four feet high with a lattice header that adds another foot to the total height. It's tall enough that I can peer over the top with my hat and eyeballs like Wilson in Home Improvement. Sort of. It is regarded as a privacy fence, but the lattice header makes it more of a semi-private construction. We hope it keeps the ivy out and that the ground hogs don't know how to engineer tunnels under neath it (wishful thinking, methinks). But the fence is sturdy, with the posts solidly anchored by concrete into the ground. We are told this fence is good for at least 25 years. Great. I'll be 97 when we need a new one.

4). Here is the view from the other end.

5). Here is a view of the total fence line, minus a couple of yards or so. The decision now is to decide whether or not to paint it, stain it or let it age naturally. If we stain it, we'll probably go with white. But I like the idea of letting it weather with age. I think aging might make the fence appear to be a more natural part of the landscape.

Disregard the arbor that is in serious disrepair. That'll be our next project.

In the meantime, many thanks to Nico Barrientos and the crew from A&K Quality Fencing. They did superior work (See here).