We're so Amish right now

We can check "fence" off of our to-do list. Boy, does that feel good. 

We decided to fence half of the backyard for both a cost saving and a hassle saving measure. We want to put in a patio and get rid of a lot of the English ivy that afflicts the front of our yard, so we fenced off the back half so that the doggies can still play while we work on the other half. It cost less than $200 for the materials and we were able to put it up in one day (with the help of 2 Freds!).  

For some reason, putting up this rustic looking fence made me feel very Amish. The process was pretty straightforward: first we marked where the fence would go with string. 

Then we fitted the gate.

Dug holes for all the posts, and secured them in place with cement. 

We picked up cement at Home Depot that is made specifically for fence posts. You pour the cement powder into the hole with the post already set. Then you pour water into the hole. You don't have to mix it or anything! 20 minutes later, the cement is solid! It was $4 for a 50lb bag, which is more expensive than regular cement, but it made the process so much faster and easier (and less messy!).  We ended up using 4 bags for the entire project.

Since there is an existing chain link fence on 2 sides of the yard, we only needed to put up about 120 feet of fencing. We spaced our fence posts 8 feet apart. 

Once the posts were ready, we unrolled the galvanized steel wire fence, securing it to the posts with a fancy 2 handed staple gun maneuver by Andrew. 

Look at that teamwork!

My job at this point was to keep the 4 staple guns we used full of staples. 

And to take pictures. 

And more pictures. 

Look at those boys. 

We didn't worry about the posts being cemented in at different heights because we plan on using them to hang the dog leashes and some bird houses and feeders. 

We've got some more jazzing up to do (we plan on planting some flower beds at the base of the fence and adding privacy lattice) but for now it's sturdy and the dogs love the extra outside time they're getting. It is really starting to feel like paradise. 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

I am very lucky to have a dad who is smart, handy and hard working. Growing up, we didn't have people we called to redo the kitchen or fix an issue with the toilet.  There was always a Fred solution (most famously, he told my mother and I that to redo the kitchen, we would just have to pull the old cabinets out and slide the new ones in. It didn't turn out to be so simple). 

My dad taught me to take care of myself, to know how to do things around the house and to build an entire kitchen's worth of cabinets (with little Freddy's help, of course). 

His determination is the reason I wasn't afraid to buy a fixer-upper, even though I knew that the road ahead of Andrew and I would be long and tough. 

 Happy Father's Day, Dad. Thank you for all the lessons. I know they will continue to support me during scary new leaps of faith.