Fence Building Madness

Exactly one week ago today, Jonathan and I started on building our new wood privacy fence. Jonathan went to Lowe's on Thursday and got all the post and 2 x 4's, a wheel barrel, and some other building supplies. Jonathan started trying to dig the post holes on Friday but the ground was so hard, it took way too much work and time. He called a rental place here in town and they said the post hole digger was supposed to be brought back from another customer either late Friday or first thing Saturday morning. When I got off work on Friday, we went to Searcy in Jonathan's truck to get the pickets. Well, we got them paid for and were getting ready to load them when his truck starting squatting BIG TIME! Too heavy! So we told them we would be back tomorrow. JOY! So Jonathan called the rental place for the post hole digger first thing Saturday until about 9 (they were supposed to open at 7) and then we went there and no one was there. So we called another place and they said they didn't have one but the store in Mountain View did. We told them to hold it and drove the 45 minutes to get it. We get it and get back home and are ready to get going. Well, the digger would start but it wouldn't turn. We took it back to the store here and they had no clue. By this time, it was already noon. During all this madness, I had been on Facebook trying to find a trailer that we could borrow to go pick up the wood. We ended up borrowing one from my friend Julie! THANKS SO MUCH JULIE! She saved us! We went to get it and told her about our crazy morning and she said her husband was a partner in the rental company we were trying to get the first post hole digger from and she would try to see if she could do anything. She called a little bit later and told us that when we got back from Searcy that we could go get it! Yea! So we finally ended up getting started on the fence at around 3 pm. If you remember last weekend....it was stinking hot as all get out!!! We got all the holes dug Saturday and Sunday. Jonathan poured the concrete on Monday and we began putting up the horizontal pieces when I got home Monday night. He worked a few hours during the day, I came home and we would work from about 7 to 9. Well, Friday (yesterday), Jonathan got all the pickets up. WOOT WOOT! Now all we have is the gate but really aren't in that big of hurry for that part. We just are thrilled that we can't see the trashy neighbors and their yard next door! Jonathan was so sweet and I think surprised at how much I was able to help. I did a lot more than I thought I would. By the way, I have some mad fence building skills! lol Here are some few pics!

This is what we are trying to hide! This is actually a good day. It usually looks much worse than this. Isn't that lovely?

Closer up....

Jonathan digging the first post hole!

He is just so cute!

My turn! lol

End of day one! Looking good!

Jonathan cutting boards to keep the post stable while the concrete hardens.

Ready for the horizontal boards then the pickets!

Jonathan cooling off in the sprinkler! Man it was SUPER HOT!!

The view from the inside looking toward the back.

Tah Dah!!! (minus the gate)

The outside! (Note the broke down neighbors' truck...another example of why we built the fence.)

The view from the front yard. We are going to build a double gate with 2 doors so we can pull our vehicles in the back yard if we need.

Overall, the fence project was a high priority since we moved in but we hated to start 2 projects at the same time. But, it got to the point that we just had to stop the "man cave" project and jump to this one. We will now go back into man cave mode and hopefully get it knocked out by the end of the summer. I have decided that I LOVE DIY projects! It feels so rewarding to know that we saved money for one, and for two, did it ourselves!