Creating Boundaries: The Resurrection

Just when you thought the fence was a done deal, it's come back to haunt Glam Granola. You see, we couldn't convince Ryan's dad to help us plaster this weekend (I scared him with all the posts about how labor intensive it is I have no idea why), but he convinced us to stain our fence so that it doesn't turn grey or black.

You can see it was already starting to lose its reddish glow.

But thanks to about three hours of work, the fence is radiant again.

It was a team effort to get to this point; I cut in and painted the top, while Ryan and his dad came up with this system to paint the bottom of the fence. Ryan's dad rolled the stain on, and Ryan used a 3" brush to back-brush what his dad had rolled, filling in any gaps as he went (which he's doing above).

In fact, their system was so successful that I adopted it for the top of the fence. I used this mini roller we have hanging around to roll on the stain, and then I back-brushed it before it could dry.

I would highly recommend investing in one of these baby rollers! Rolling and back-brushing went much faster than brushing everything in, especially since the redwood soaks up the stain pretty quickly, thus you have to use a lot more stain than you do paint (which I am much more familiar with).

For those of you who want to the details, we used Behr Premium Wood-Toned Deck, Fence, and Siding Weatherproofing Wood Finish in Cedar Naturaltone in No. 501 to stain and protect the redwood.

We chose Cedar Naturaltone instead of the Redwood Naturaltone because we thought the yellow of the cedar would still allow the natural red of the wood to shine through without making it look exaggerated or unnatural, the way the Redwood Naturaltone did in the store's mock up.

We got a 5 gallon bucket of stain, and it only took about half of the bucket to do the whole fence, which is good because now we have some left over for when we inevitably have to re-stain it, which hopefully won't be for a couple of years. And the best part, in my opinion, was that it's latex based instead of oil based, which means that you can use your good rollers and brushes without fear of ruining them or gumming them up.

Compared to plastering, staining the fence wasn't bad at all. It's nice to start and finish a project in one day, and we even got to be outside soaking up the summer fog we're famous for in these parts.

We accomplished another backyard feat this weekend as well that I'll be gabbing about tomorrow. Hint: you can see it in the background of one of the pics in this post...

By the way, if your looking for the backstory on the fence, you can read all about it here, here, and here.

Creating Boundaries: The Final Chapter

I came home today from a long day of teaching, grading, and entering the mountain of papers graded over the weekend to this surprise:

Our fence is finished! (Don't mind the blurry picture. The storm had temporarily cleared but the sun was setting.)

The gate (and the whole fence) are gorgeous! My husband is so talented; he carried out my vision and improvised on it to perfection. (I wish I would have saved my original drawing that I gave him to work with. It was laughs!) The finished product wildly exceeded the vision in my head.

 And just in case you forgot, this is the fence we inherited with the house...

... and here's what it looked like after Phase I.

And let's not forget about Phase II! 

We've come a long way, baby! And this is only project numero uno. What do you think? Have we met our goal: containing the pooches while retaining the view? 

Now we're dreaming up how to improve the front yard. More on that later in the week! 

Creating Boundaries Part II

The fence is well on it's way! I think it is close enough to the final product that I am ready to share our progress.

It's a little hard to tell from the above photo, but we are alternating 1x6 redwood boards with wider 1x12's to create a striated, horizontal effect. (The brains and muscle of this operation started with the 1x6 at the top, in case you are as curious about the method as I was.)

The plan is to use two horizontal 2x2's to puppy-proof the top section, while still keeping it open and airy. In the mock up we did yesterday, the two horizontal sections complemented each other without competing quite the way using vertical 2x2's did.

We want to preserve the view, particularly at this time of day.

Just picture us sipping a cool beverage and watching the sunset from the backyard, perhaps from the hot tub, which is a little scary at this point. I can almost taste that margarita now...

But I digress. Here's a better view of the fence that might make the design a little more readable.

And here's a view of the fence looking from one side of the yard to the other.

We (meaning Ryan) still has a gate to build, one section to finish up (we ran out of lumber), and the top section of the fence to finish up. He has a few finishing details in store too. I will be sure to post pics when it's checked off the old list, and at that point I will also share our vision for the backyard, but what do you think so far?

We are all set to move on Saturday, one day after I submit grades. Oy, what a week! I am excited to get settled in and bring the pups to their new palace. I am just hoping that it goes a little smoother than this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/11/dogs-dont-understand-basic-concepts.html
(If you have dogs, appreciate dogs, or have ever tried moving with one, you HAVE to read this! It had me laughing so hard I cried the first time I ran across it.)

The Queen Of Rock

I cannot move my arms above my shoulders because I was rocking out all weekend. No, I did not attend some fabulous concert. I instead spent my weekend clearing the backyard of lava rock while the hubs and my dad were building the new fence.

Ryan so thoroughly enjoyed watching me struggle to first shovel, then transport, and finally toss the cursed lava rock into the raised trailer that he jokingly dubbed me the "Queen of Rock." Trust me, it's much less glamorous that it sounds.

It was slow going, but the yard went from looking like this at the beginning of day 1:

(The lava rock is behind the lemon tree, you just can't see it.) To this by the end of day 1 - thanks mostly to the sweat equity put in by my dad:

And triumphantly to this by the start of the Superbowl:

The pics really don't do it justice! The fence is looking less like this now...

And more like this:

We still have a long way to go. Don't worry, we will be building it all week!

Oh, and I got all these boxes moved to the new place, but they are not yet unpacked.

Sorry for the short post, but I am sore, stiff, and I can no longer see straight. Stay tuned for paint updates tomorrow!

Creating Boundaries

It's inevitable, we all have boundary issues. I am just counting my blessing that the boundary in question is fixable! It's the back fence: the wood is soft, it moves when you lean against it, and it's too short for our large and athletic dogs.

They'll jump that thing in a heartbeat, especially devil dog! So our first order of business once we move is to make the fence doggy proof. It's got to be high enough that the pups can't clear it, but we don't want to block our awesome view from the backyard.

So we are thinking 4 feet of solid fencing, and then something airier and more open for the last 2 feet. Here's what we are leaning towards so far.

Oh, did I mention that I like fences with horizontal planks instead of vertical? Surprisingly, Ryan is right there with me.

I like the variation in plank height in this one above. And in the one below we both like the open caging at the top. Only we would get rid of the geometric pattern and just leave it open, but not so open that a 100 pound Ridgeback can worm her way through.

Check out these fence accessories that I found as I was trolling through pininterest.com, where all the above pics hail from.

I swear the doggies need that lookout bubble! Too cute. Azlan especially would be entertained all day with the neighborhood watch. And I love the idea of pots that can sit right on the fence. It's like a modern planter box, but much cooler, and it would be so easy to change up what gets planted where. The fun colors and reasonable cost ($28 bucks a pop) help too. 

So now it's your turn to weigh in on the great fence debate. How do you feel about horizontal planks? What should be do for the last 2 feet of the fence?