On the Fence

While we've lived in our house for less than a month, we've already made some major changes and one major investment: a split rail fence.

When Tim and I began our home search, a fence was on the "not required, but really wanted" list of house traits. Unfortunately, a lot of homeowners must not feel the same way because only two of the houses we looked at had a fenced in yard. Since we couldn't find many homes with a fence, we just decided we'd budget for it and put one in ourselves (and by ourselves, I mean hire someone else who knows what they are doing....did you see how our painting project turned out?).

We moved in on Friday, June 11 and by 6 p.m. that night, we already had an independent contractor out marking our yard and putting together an estimate for the project.

By the following Wednesday, we had our estimate and realized we had under-budgeted for the project. We had three options: 1. Don't build a fence; 2. Call other companies and find a lower quote 3. Just go with the quote, get started and pull cash from other funds temporarily.

The practical side of us thought we should look around, but the efficient side in us said just go with the quote and get the fence in already!

So, a week after we moved in, our beautiful split rail fence was being installed for a pretty penny. But you won't hear us complaining. We think it's worth every dollar we spent on the project. We had excellent labor (they worked for a week straight; 7:00 a.m. - 5 p.m. on weekends and 3:00 p.m. to dark on weeknights to complete the project) and the fence is top-notch wood and layout. We love it...and so do our girls who can now roam free without leashes.

We also love the look of the split rail and it was the best choice of fence for us for a few reasons; it was one of the cheaper types of fencing available and it looks the best considering our backyard and the woods. With this fence, we don't loose the view of the woods which is something we love. We had galvanized fencing laid over the rails to the girls can't slip out through the rails (which I saw them do one afternoon before the fence was finished) and other creatures can't get in (although we do have a mischievous bunny rabbit who comes in our yard every now and then; I predict he will be dead by the end of summer if he keeps visiting).




In the next picture, the white pile of fluff is Ava's hair. She was due for a good brushing. I'm letting the wind take care of the rest...


Stay tuned for before/after pics of the green upstairs bedroom and a project Tim is assembling this week!