Yesterday was a big day for the honeymoon/staycation/minimoon.
Monday night we walked down to Downtown Lumber and picked up a 2×6 to start out our deck/fence project. Starting with the fence. Monday night we ripped out the old fence. It was an old chain link that apparently the old lady that owned the place before the dude that flipped it to us paid $700 for. Way too much. We ripped out 4 posts by hand. One that was “cemented”. The last post posed a problem as it was cemented to the foundation of our deck. So I cut it off using the saws-all and covered it with dirt.
Tuesday morning we picked up and laminated the 2×6 to the existing 4×4 deck post added a 4×4 to act as a fence post and lag bolted them all together. 10 inch 1/2 inch bolts are fun. Big hardware big fun. Then we bolted an other 4×4 to the garage as the final post and strung a string between the two end posts so we could line up the 3 middle posts with them so the fence didn’t turn out wonky.
We used fence post spikes instead of digging post holes and cementing the posts in place. They’re within code and as long as you keep an eye on them over the years they don’t move much. Sinking the fence spikes was fun. Push it down as far as you can using body weight then slam those mothers in using a sledge. Once the spike is sunk use the convenient leveling system to level the spike and install your 4×4 post. Easy!
After all the posts are installed it’s quite simple to fence a… fence. We chose a 1×2, 1×2, 1×6, 1×6 pattern. When we got to eye level we left some 1 inch spaces between the boards so that we didn’t close off the yard to the neighbours. It had started to look a little like a wooden wall not a fence.
We fenced by butting the boards right to each other as we wanted a little privacy and as boards sit on a fence or deck they shrink so even when butted up against each other now there will be a space between them within a year or two.
After fencing one section I set my circular saw to the correct depth, made a chalk line using a chalk snap and cut up the fence post. This saved us having to measure every board to the perfect size. We then covered all the ends with decorative face boards so that the screws and ends of the boards don’t show.
We screwed in the last board just as the light was going away. Just in time for a sogie and a beer or 3.
It’s not quite done yet. We have to decide with our neighbours what we want to do with the top. We were thinking copper toppers at first but now after seeing the fence done we’re thinking of just cutting off the posts flush with the fence its self.
(as you can see my camera still hasn’t recovered from the sawdust of the work bench and as far as plans are looking for this honeymoon it won’t be recovering any time soon. Tomorrow we PAINT!)