New fence in the back yard, or beginning of another set of projects

[linuxman51]

Me & the wife moved 'out of town' a little over a year ago, to a place that was nice, but not really maintained (both inside and out), and the old fence around the pool and the 'courtyard' as we call it, was old, falling apart, and occasionally the cause for dog escape-age. also, the only gates into the area were too small for the fast mower, and created other issues related to mowing that I wanted to resolve (or try to resolve, at least). For the time being, we have not replaced the pool fence, however should/when children enter the picture, that will be addressed.

When we bought the house, it looked like this:

Another shot

oddly, I don't have very many more recent pictures of the whole area (probably because it is completely unremarkable), but just on the other side (almost right through) the fence, there's a large fig..bush/tree, and a row of crepe myrtles on what has become a dam (will dig out the drainage system that the P.O. let clog up, fix it so the roof and yard drains work correctly, and level and re-sod the whole area probably), that made it a real pain in the butt to mow.

So, without further ado, the pictures of 9 days of work, with some minor cleanup/finishing left:
out with the old (that was fun. I just lowered the fel and drove over it), then dug out the old posts over there

dug the new post holes after some..scientific-ish measurements. (you can see the hoe detached under the tree in the background)

Dropped in and set the posts on the first day (unpictured. last saturday, june 1), so I could get the stringers cut and mounted the next day (and I planned to start throwing up the pickets too, but alas, various things conspired against me)
We started the day by tearing out the remainder of the fence that was to be removed in this adventure (more on this later)

and at the end of the day, this is what it all looked like:

I got started on the pickets monday, had to test out the design first and see if it passed wife-muster (she wanted them spaced even further apart, but we have small crafty dogs and that would not work so well)

another angle

worked til dark throwing up pickets, and then picked up where I left off the next couple of days, had to borrow an air compressor after the first day because mine threw a belt (didn't even know it had one)

finished up the angle on the far end of the pool

started in on the back part

all tacked up

came back in saturday and corrected the final height of the back run (4 feet on one end, then level across), that was fun.

then yesterday it was time to build the gate. it's ~ 7 feet wide.

finished up

Then it was time to test things out, and remove the posts from around the pool deck:
it fits

it's close, but it does fit. and I can drop the outriggers for the backhoe with room to spare, so bonus

I've been told to run a tension wire diagonally across the gate. I will probably do this. Some words about the final construction, and part of the process: I cheated a little bit because I was working mostly by myself, and used my trim nail gun to put the pickets up initially (really to hold them in place for a few days and get the yard to a point where I could let the dogs out unsupervised again. they did not like the makeshift run I put out there, and I think they're still moping about it now). I then came back on friday and saturday and ran 6 screws in on the 6ft boards, and 4 in on the 4 ft boards (basically, 2 screws per stringer/picket intersection). It's amazing how much that "tightened" things up, even though they didn't look loose initially.

Now as for the old section(s) still left, I intend to build a pole barn/pavilion type of deal off the shallow end of the pool, so it didn't make sense to me to replace that whole run only to take it out in a couple of months. Now I've got to fix the back yard drainage, probably re-landscape it; and I think I will end up having to scrape and re-sod it (but it's not a huge area so it shouldn't be a big deal), but now I can get the tractor and all of my other stuff in there to do work.

 

[Western]

Looks good! It would be hard not to jump into that nice looking pool after a couple of hours!:laughing:

 

[linuxman51]

oh I did, that's part of why it took 9 days to finish

 

[DT86]

Looks very nice!

 

[Iowachild]

You put in a lot of work on that project. Looks great!:thumbsup:

 

[sld]

Nice job! I have been replacing fence and as I go I am staining it. This makes all the difference in the world. The stain will last for several years and makes it look so much nicer. With your board set up, a power roller would make quick work of that.

 

[linuxman51]

Nice job! I have been replacing fence and as I go I am staining it. This makes all the difference in the world. The stain will last for several years and makes it look so much nicer. With your board set up, a power roller would make quick work of that.

I've thought about that, and am considering it (in a couple of weeks after everything has dried out and I've worked up the want to work on it again ). wonder how either my hvlp or airless sprayer would do with the stain.. Which kind did you use?

 

[sld]

I've thought about that, and am considering it (in a couple of weeks after everything has dried out and I've worked up the want to work on it again ). wonder how either my hvlp or airless sprayer would do with the stain.. Which kind did you use?

I have just been using a regular roller with tray. It goes pretty fast and there is not much waste. With your staggered boards I think it would be hard to keep from wasting material by spraying, but maybe not with HLVP. But, the roller seems to keep the color pretty consistent from board to board with good penetration.

I have been thinking about getting a power roller for many reasons with this being one of them.