The Fence: Panels + Lattice = Completion

Happy Monday to you all! I hope you had a lovely Memorial Day weeked (last weekend) and a lovely 4-day work week after that. I know we were super busy, but had a lot of fun and relaxation time.

Over the course of that long weekend, Joey did complete work on our fence! Only a few details remain - which I will get to - but I figured you might want to see what the end results look like. So, here are a hundred pictures to capture the changes!

I left off with the individual planks being screwed into the horizontal boards to create what looks like a panel from the inside of the fence...

Joey notched out the end post to get the fence tight with the side of the house. Very precise. We don't want puppies or kitties or anything else slipping through the cracks!

Joey worked his way down the fence very methodically. It was a pretty speedy process putting the cut-to-length boards up.

Next to go on was the gate on the west side of the house.

Joey built the gates to blend right in with the fence. Only the bottom is cut differently so that there is room for the gate to swing open.

In the picture below, you can see the horizontal board that goes across the panels on the back of the gate - for added security. We don't want boards falling off!

At this stage, I was starting to get really excited, but at the same time I was a little nervous the fence might not be tall enough. We were aiming for the privacy panels to go up 4 feet and the lattice on top to add an additional foot for total of 5 feet in height. But with the way our yard slopes a little and how high the house sits above the ground, I worried there might not be enough privacy. But Joey assured me it'd fine. So, I waited.

Next up? Boards that run across the top of the panels to cap off the planks of wood. It gives the fence a very finished look.

Then Joey routed grooves in this cap board and the posts so that the lattice would sit inside the boards slightly.

Finally it was time for the lattice to be cut and installed. Joey used a pair of saw horses to steady the lattice. Then a chalk line to measure the height needed. Then he used a circular saw to cut the lattice as needed...

The lattice fit right into the grooves he created. PERFECT!

I missed some photos of this whole phase in the process, but basically he put the lattice in all the way around the fence and then put one final piece of wood on top of the lattice to cap it all off. This piece of wood also had a little groove in it to fit the lattice into it...

Note: Ignore the splintered wood. It will get sanded before painting happens (way down the road).

And here is the finished product! It's amazing to me what a difference it makes to our newly-defined back yard space. I keep saying that over and over because it's so true. The height even ended up being perfect. Not too private - we want to be able to stand up and look over the fence if need, plus not block off too much of the house from the street view - but private enough so that we can sit around our new little fire pit (seen below) or have kids running around the yard and people driving/walking by won't see it all.

Notice that Joey even got the screws in each board to line up perfectly! I love a detail-oriented, perfectionistic (is that a word???) husband. :)

We kept the fence 12 inches off the sidewalk and driveway for extra breathing space. Glad we did that. I can park and exit the car with no troubles. You can see below that we did bring the gate out to meet the driveway. So, there's a little bump-out there. That was necessary for the gate to line up with the garage.

I love that we decided to include the side entrance of the house into the fenced in yard. Not only does it make the back yard space seem bigger, but it's super convenient for letting the dog in and out of the house.

It also makes the "front door" of the house less confusing. With 3 entrances (the front, side, and back porch), people didn't know where to go. Now the true "front" of the house will be more obvious since the side and back entrances are enclosed.

Pretty nifty for being done all within a couple weeks? I just love the look! Once we get some plants/bushes/flowers planted in the new mulch beds we created last summer, it will look even better.

Now, there are two parts of this fence project that are not completed. One being the latches for both gates. We're not exactly sure how that's going to come together. For now, Joey screwed up little blocks of wood to turn and keep the gates from swinging open. I'll show you final results on that once we have a solution.

The second part yet to complete is the painting of the fence. Green-treated wood has to sit and "dry out" for about 6+ MONTHS. So, we're looking at next summer to paint the fence white. That should work out well though given we also want to replace the siding on the garage and back porch next summer.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the fence as is! We've already used the yard 100% more than we did before the fence went up. Memorial weekend was great with parties and s'mores over the new fire pit.

Note to viewers: Put something that can tolerate heat UNDER your fire pit so it doesn't burn your grass. Whoops!

Now tell me your thoughts! What do you think of the fence? Anything you would do differently? We're smitten.

Pssst... If you want to see prior blog posts on the fence, click here, here, and here.