Backyard Makeover

You might recognize these photos from a previous post about our backyard makeover taking place this year. On the Saturday before Mother's Day, in 85 degree weather, many hard working friends and family transformed our backyard fence from the ragged old thing you see at right and below.

On the eve of project day, Jeff enthusiastically demolished the old fence. It took maybe a couple kicks and it was down. No joke. Jeff literally pulled the old fence posts and cement from the ground. Dad arrived early Saturday morning and went through a few plans with Jeff before heading out for supplies.

Jennifer didn't want to miss out on the action and begged to dig some holes for the new arbor vitae needed to finish a row. What she didn't know was how big the holes needed to be. With every, "Is it big enough?", Jenn would seek consultations from my dad and our friend Todd.

We have spotted several of these horizontal fences around Portland and knew it was a design we wanted. We just didn't quite know how to do it, at first. Fortunately, Dad and Jeff were able to put our vision into place and the fence started to take shape.

Admittedly, my largest role for the day was entertaining Nathan, but I got my hands into the work a little. No one can operate a level like I. ;)

Once posts were in, the fence boards went up pretty quickly. The gate, however, slowed the work as again, it was necessary to figure out how to create one with our horizontal design.

And, by day's end, our fence looked like this:

What a difference! Our yard looks bigger and we are proud of our fence. A week later, the irises were inspired to bloom for the first time in two years.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this project. We certainly could not have done this without your help!

David Murray: for time, energy, brain and muscle power, use of your truck
Todd David: for strength and creative consultations
Jennifer Davolt: for digging holes (even if one tree is crooked)
David Davolt: for adding steam to the work when the sun was peaking overhead
Steve Anderson: for use of your saw and other fence building supplies (even if a parade got in the way)

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