Don't fence me in (by Andy)

Update... I actually wrote this on the 1st of September. Here we are a month later and I'm finally adding pictures and posting it. Better late than never!

So... the fences are done. This story goes back months and months when we decided that Minerva needed her own space. This was more than a dog run for a dog that's hardly outside, it was a way to give her a place to do her business while not allowing her to do said business on Alton's play space. Well, future play space. At any rate, that gave us a need to extend one fence as far as possible. This was the east side fence and we found that we could extend it 40 feet before reaching the utilities entering our home. And since I didn't want to build a Meter-Checker dedicated gate, I opted to stop at the utilities. This, however, gave us no way to access the backyard from the side of the house, so we decided to move the gate to the west side of the house. I decided to extend the west side a bit to give us some room to play with, rather than just a gate. This became 12 feet for whatever reason. When talking with the neighbors for approval, the west side neighbors asked if I could install a gate at the end of the new fence (same as I was dong for my side) and also convert their current "end cap," or piece of fence that currently closed off their backyard at the side, into a gate as well. Apparently, their plan was to put trashcans here.

So the fences and gates are all done now. The east side matches well with the existing fence and Minerva took to it pretty much immediately all on her own! However, we have yet to actually do anything with that space. I'd like to take out all the bark dust, but I worry that with nothing to put down in its place, it would become a huge mud pit. The west side looks great. I was able to move Minerva's dog house out into the yard (temporarily) and we can now actually walk from the side, through the gate, and into the back yard. Not that we do. The plans for that side include a small walkway utilizing the left over bricks from our patio project (Katie would insert a link here, but I don't know how. Maybe she'll help me out.....[Done. --Katie]) and also a small veggie garden.

So now it's time for pictures (I know, I know.... fiiiinallly). Enjoy!

East Side before.

East Side during.

East Side completed (from street).

East Side completed (from back yard).

East Side transition from old fence to new fence.

West Side before.

West Side during.

West side completed (from street). I also did two gates on the neighbor's side. The one you see here and one behind it that was converted into a gate from old fencing.

West side completed (from backyard).