![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Postcards from the edge
Jan. 6th, 2007 02:40 pmNot to be too dramatic, but the fence just fell down. This is the same fence that long-standing flisters will recall we had to move due to the property line being 8 feet on the other side of it this year.
Part of the problem was us. When the men moved the fence, they didn't ensure that it was level across the top or properly adjusted for the topography of our yard. This put a LOT of pressure on the rain-saturated ground to hold up the fence and stressed the connections, which were already battered and bloody from being ripped out and re-used (which they shouldn't have been). Something had to give and it did.
Josh is on his cell phone calling in favors, I'm about ready to throw on some outdoor clothes and go wrangle up the fallen branches and bonfire the whole sorry mess, but meanwhile I'm just about ready to tear my hair out in frustration. Its going to take at least a week of work to break down the fence and re-install it along 262 linear feet of property. Not really what Josh wanted to do with his last week of leave, but there you go - the joys of home ownership. We talked about submitting a home insurance claim (if we even can, which we're not sure of) and even of getting rid of the damn thing all together and using the ancient, shorter pig-wire fence. He never got around to pulling the old fence down (after all, it was on the other side of the fence and we couldn't see it), and there are some pro's to that idea as pig-wire seems to withstand winter storms better than the solid wood plank fencing, and holds the dogs inside our yard. At least temporarily until he can get a team over here to re-install it properly.
But at the end of the day, its vanity that prevails overall. Our neighbors have a hideous yard, filled with piles of various crap, multiple cars that probably don't all run and a teenage son who likes to throw their trash into our yard. A good tall fence that blocked visibility of their yard is a must have.
Part of the problem was us. When the men moved the fence, they didn't ensure that it was level across the top or properly adjusted for the topography of our yard. This put a LOT of pressure on the rain-saturated ground to hold up the fence and stressed the connections, which were already battered and bloody from being ripped out and re-used (which they shouldn't have been). Something had to give and it did.
Josh is on his cell phone calling in favors, I'm about ready to throw on some outdoor clothes and go wrangle up the fallen branches and bonfire the whole sorry mess, but meanwhile I'm just about ready to tear my hair out in frustration. Its going to take at least a week of work to break down the fence and re-install it along 262 linear feet of property. Not really what Josh wanted to do with his last week of leave, but there you go - the joys of home ownership. We talked about submitting a home insurance claim (if we even can, which we're not sure of) and even of getting rid of the damn thing all together and using the ancient, shorter pig-wire fence. He never got around to pulling the old fence down (after all, it was on the other side of the fence and we couldn't see it), and there are some pro's to that idea as pig-wire seems to withstand winter storms better than the solid wood plank fencing, and holds the dogs inside our yard. At least temporarily until he can get a team over here to re-install it properly.
But at the end of the day, its vanity that prevails overall. Our neighbors have a hideous yard, filled with piles of various crap, multiple cars that probably don't all run and a teenage son who likes to throw their trash into our yard. A good tall fence that blocked visibility of their yard is a must have.
