fence

When I was working on updating the patio,
I mentioned that I was working on a few projects.
Well, Mon Cheri and I built a fence to keep our puppy
in the backyard, Black dog and GBD always knew the boundary
and never needed an actual fence (they had been trained in our previous houses
with electronic fences and knew what those little white flags meant!)

It took us a while to build and install it, but here it is,
all finished and keeping the puppy and Black dog inside the yard.

To make the work go faster, I build sections ahead of time.

I used pressure treated 2 X 4 for the top, and 2 X 6 for the bottom.

Like that I could build during the week, and we could install on the week end,

it worked really well. I also had enough time, for some of them, to paint them before installation.

For the posts holding the sections,

we followed this description from This Old House.

I did not do the digging, carpal tunnel and digging do not go together at all,

I manage just fine with just about everything else in small dose (except knitting too!)

Since we "only" had 2 sides to build, we also needed 2 gates.

If you ever build door or gate, you know these are the tricky parts,

well I was able to find those kits at the Home Depot,

and they were perfect for our fence: easy to install and sturdy.

They worked better on the side with a smaller gate than the bigger gate,

but this could be linked to the fact the ground slopped, and may be not totally straight post...

but it works great as this is one that is opened multiple times a day.

We started small, one side at a time, adapting to an uneven terrain and lot.

On the first side, we spaced the board 5 1/2 inches apart (using a 2 X 6 for spacing),

 before getting the puppy,which is way too wide for a small dog,

 but perfect for Black dog (wrong reference point!)

So we added some sturdy mesh to the fence and it seems to hold everybody nicely!

While we were building this side, we put up some temporary fencing on the other side.

Once again we built it a little at time, but for this one, we used a 2 X 4 for the spacing,

it is a lot closer (by 2 inches!) but still too wide for a slim puppy.

So once again we added some mesh, after painting.

The angle we used might seem unexpected, but I was uncomfortable building a fence just under

my neighbor's basketball play area, I had vision of kids dunking and falling on post/fence

and getting hurt! So we went with a diagonal fence.

It turned out to be perfect, the basketball never falls in the yard 

(no danger of letting the dog out to get the ball) and

 I can see every part of the backyard from inside 

(otherwise we would have had a hidden corner!)

We still need to add some flagstones under this gate, each time it rains, it gets all dirty!

The best part, we managed to finish before the arrival of the mosquitoes

(OK just by a couple days, but still),

now the puppy can go outside without us, which means less biting for us!

(they should make for people some of those tick/mosquito monthly repellent spray!)

Happy day!