Small Fence, Big Difference (Part 1)

As they say on Letterkenny, "back to chorin'". Today's post covers our building a 7 meter (20 foot) fence between our new neighbor's fence and NewOldHouse. We did this entirely ourselves with all salvaged wood. The only new materials were the gate supports, hinges and latches. Since there are only 2 of us working on this, around jobs and such, it is taking a while, so this is split into multiple parts.

before image

Before I get into it, you are probably wondering why we did this when the kitchen is non-existent. Great question. It starts with the dog, Tuukka. He is very curious and wants to be in everything. We knick-named him "pedibus" because of how much he wants to be underfoot. So, if we need to get after some serious demo, or something, we need to contain him. The backyard is big and wild.. and almost completely enclosed with fence. The space between the neighbor's fence and our house is open, so when we put him in the backyard, we find him in the front shortly thereafter.

Get Material

Backing up a couple of months, Boo was out walking Tuukka when she saw a fencing company tearing down a neighbors fence. In her usual way, she asked what they were up to and what they were doing with the remains. It turned out some of the fence was bad, some of it was good, but the neighbor wanted the whole thing replaced. So, the fencing guys put the really bad stuff in their trailer and left the mediocre to good fencing in a pile on the curb. In 2 loads with ToyoTruck, we collected enough material to build more than what we needed. The main posts were not too great, so we will probably not re-use many of them. The cross-pieces are a mix also, but mostly in decent shape; many were recent replacement boards. Last, we look at the actual pickets. This fence was at least 5 feet high, and we are building a 4-foot fence. So, any board which has limited rot on the bottom is fair game. Some boards were in good shape, but most have some rot at the bottom and the top is worn.  Again, if we can get 4 feet out of a board, it fits our purpose. Since the fence we are building will be more traditional-picket, with air space between the pickets, and the fence we salvaged was solid, we have twice as many to think about as we need for the same distance.

Plan

diggin holes

Boo and I spent a Saturday morning, wandering around with coffee, measuring tape and a level to decide where to put our fence. We have a power meter on the house, so that needs to be available to the power company. That defined the furthest towards the street it could go. Less than a foot further back, is the downspout. We preferred having that in the backyard, so the fence is going into that spot in between. There is a small flower garden there, and then open space to the neighbor's fence. We intend to put a garage in the back one day, and we would like to be able to pass through without having to open a big ol' gate to do so. To remedy, we decided to have a short section of fixed fence from the house to the edge of the flower garden. There, we would put a 1 meter person gate. The rest of the line from that gate to the neighbor's fence would be a 4 meter opening, with 2 2-meter gates so a car could pass between. The weight of the person gate should be relatively small, and with the hinge on the flower garden side, there will be sufficient ballast. The car-gates, however, cannot be free-swinging gates. I figure that no matter how deep I set the post between the person gate and the adjacent car gate, that car gate will pull on it and eventually loosen it. So, the car gates will get wheels.

Prep Material

this took a long time

Free wood is not as "free" as it sounds. Each picket needs to be removed from the cross-pieces, the screws and nails removed and then cut to length. I started simply by removing pickets and the fasteners from the pickets and cross-pieces, leaving them in corresponding piles. I spent spare cycles around work days and other commitments to collect a pile of pickets nearly 3 feet high and twice as wide. This took a lot longer than I expected. We borrowed a table saw to rip the boards down from their existing 5 inches wide down to 3 inches wide. Again, this creates an opportunity to cut off splits or bad edges. But each board takes multiple cuts (up to 4, right?) to get right. We delayed the shaping of the pickets until after we got some of the fence supports up.

For posts, we had a couple of long pressure-treated 4x4 posts already on the property. For the 3rd post, we took the best-looking, longest from the salvaged fence. It was also pressure treated and look less than a couple of years old.

Dig Holes, Place Poles

holes dug

With a rough plan in place, we got into details, marking exactly where each post would go. Once satisfied, I marked the spot with spray paint. To collect the dirt, I laid out a tarp. We had an old post-hole digger, but it would not make much of a dent in the clay soil. Instead, I started with a traditional shovel, removing the top layer, tossing the dirt under the grass-plug onto the tarp. Once I got down to the top of the shovel (6 inches?) I switched to a pry-bar to loosen the clay and then a small plastic tub from the recycling to remove the loosened soil. In this manner, I dug 3 holes 24 inches deep, each taking about an hour. While I was digging, Boo went out and got us 10 gallons (2 5-gallon buckets full) of 3/4-minus gravel.

One post at a time, we put a few inches of gravel in the bottom of the hole, tamped it with the fence post and then set the post in place. Boo confirmed vertical with a level on 2 sides while I added gravel and tamped over and over again until the post was secure. After the first post was set, we also checked that the placement within the hole was in a straight line and then followed the same vertical / gravel / tamp cycle. Once all 3 posts were in, we watered the holes to press out the air, and then added more gravel and tamped again. We topped the last 1/2 inch of the hole with soil and then made sure there was a mound around the post, again tamping. In theory, this should dissuade rain from running down along the post, weakening the foundation. We will see.

I took a few weeks of work around work to get this far. We have steel brackets for building the gates so they will not only be held together with wood 2x4's and wood screws. I will get after that assembly and more material prep in the next post.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Car-go-round

As we hit Summer, I find my attention going in 100 directions at once. When you have many cars, each with small problems, and a house in mid-rehab, that scatter is probably that much worse. With the rehab work going on, I will have limited time to work on cars, but Boo has asked me to think about setting aside one day a week to it since I take such pleasure from it, and life can't always be about to-do lists, home construction and your job. So, today's post tries to bring some order to the car-chaos, with a hope that I will have some time to clown on one or more of these open items this summer.

Oliver

Oliver is the 1978 MGB. Some may look at Oliver like he was my mid-life crisis car. In truth, he was a car that could fit in the super-small garage I had and needed work. He was something I could work on that wasn't Hapy, the 1972 VW bus, and I could be out of the rain when I did it. Oliver definitely met that goal and I really needed something other than Hapy to wrench on for a while. The goal Oliver has not yet met is passing DEQ. So, he is not legally drive-able. Oliver's list of incomplete items is fairly short, though. I believe, he could pass DEQ today if the carb is adjusted right. He just needs another run through DEQ to see how close I am. He got a new battery for the move to the NewOldHouse, and since then he has sat under one of those 5L car covers with the battery disconnected.

Beyond DEQ, the heated seat circuit did not get completed, and there remains a leak under the windscreen on the passenger side. Perhaps most importantly the brakes are still spongey and I think it is because the brake master cylinder was not bled prior to install. I asked the guys at Les Schwab to do it when I bought a set of tires from them. They sold me the tires, failed to bleed the brakes, and that's why I now buy tires at Firestone. Anyway, I bought a brake bleeder kit, (and will document my process) and hope to get him to DEQ before this top-down season has really started.

Zed

Ah Zed, the 1978 Datsun 280ZX. After a spring and summer of bodywork, Zed still needs a lot. I won't rerun that history, but there was a lot of sanding and shaping. Then, I had that heroic drive from oldHouse to NewOldHouse, sitting on a toolbox for a front seat (See Zed Moves). Once parked, he got a 10x20 to sit under while we worked on the house. Well, the weather had other plans, lifting and tossing the canopy multiple times, putting multiple rubs and deep scratches into the paint (See Hello Windstorm, My Old Friend). So, Zed will need another round of sanding and painting. Now that I have seen the Eastwood 9mm in the sun, I am not as enamored with it. I see a slight olive green in that dark grey and the pitted finish is not to my liking at all. So, I will probably sand down below the paint to some degree, re-shoot the black primer and shoot a different color. Of course, the body kit is installed and it's not coming off. So, I will need to get creative to get good coverage down low. Now parked next to Oliver with a matching 5L car cover, they are twins. I do not expect to do much of anything on Zed this Summer.

 

Hapy

In the Phil and Friends post (See Phil and Phrends Road Report), I mentioned a few things that needed attention before the next drive in Hapy, the 1972 VW camperbus. The most glaring was the loss of the brake booster. I removed the hose from the booster and tested the vacuum on the booster unit. I applied 15 pounds of vacuum and over the course of a few minutes, it decayed a couple of pounds. To me, that is satisfactory. Then, I tested the vacuum on the hose I had just removed. It held no vacuum. So, I acquired and installed Gates vacuum hose. One quick test drive later, the brakes are good. I installed the cage for the stereo so it is well locked into the glove box install location. I also affixed a mount for the UltraGauge on the steering wheel support so the UltraGauge is directly below the speedometer now. I do not expect Hapy will have meaningful work done to him for the rest of the Summer. Instead, he will be set up for DrivewayFest between trips so we can enjoy our clubhouse-on-wheels. Hapy has been used a few times since we moved as my daily-driver when Boo needs to take Toyotruck somewhere. Every time, since we moved to the NewOldHouse, he has started right up. I mentioned the saga about towing him here. The starter swap-out was easy and the right fix (See Hapy Lives Again).

Nemo

Nemo (1997 Audi A4 Quattro) has left the fleet, enjoying a new lease on life in Idaho. See Fare Well, Nemo.

GoRo

GoRo (2009 Audi A4 Quattro) had a series of issues appear over last winter. First, the outer driver handle stopped working. So, to get in, you needed to reach through either from the passenger side or from the rear seat to get the door open. What a pain. Then, the battery started to misbehave, not holding charge. While looking for the charger studs, the hood latch broke. So, GoRo sat for most of the winter, until Boo got the hood latch repaired (she hired our friend Courtney at MobilePDX). Even Courtney doesn't want to touch the outer door latch, so we're not sure what we are going to do about that. I need to get the battery replaced, and then maybe I'll take it on. Either way, we are going to sell GoRo. We figure it hasn't been driven since last December, and we have been just fine without it.

ToyoTruck

Recall that Boo and I bought ToyoTruck (2005 Toyota pickup) from her sister. We had agreed to the price before the ice-storm sent the truck into a pole, damaging the passenger front corner. I replaced a bunch of things, but did not shoot the paint. The top of the truck has suffered sun, wind or seaside damage to the paint as well, so when I paint the replaced bodyparts, the top half of the truck (at least) needs paint as well. This truck has minor dents on a few panels as well, so before I shoot anything, I'll work those dents out first. ToyoTruck is our true daily-driver. I hope, once GoRo is gone, and Oliver is legal, perhaps we will drive Oliver and Hapy around, leaving the truck home more.

When I can get away from house construction projects, I will be getting after this stuff, starting with Oliver. He is such a fun ride, and it would be a shame to lose another Summer to something like DEQ. I know I have not been posting much, basically since we bought this house. That day, car work mostly came to a halt, and house construction is much slower and frankly less interesting to post on. I will make me next post a catch-up on what's happened here since my April post.

Thanks, as always, for following along-