Fences Fences Everywhere

 

Oh how I'd love to have the fence above, but alas... it's not going to happen. I've spent a lot of time looking around at what others have done as far as perimeter fences and gates, how they're embedded into stone (or concrete in some cases) and here are a few samples of what I'm looking at nearby in Covington, KY.

 

I like the one above, it's about three blocks away from us, and although we don't have the stacked stone base under the limestone, I see this as a distinct possibility to emulate.

Hoop and spear, pretty basic... in concrete.

Above, in limestone, below in concrete. Again, all ok as far as I'm concerned.

 Now, this is going to be the part that kills me: finding these end posts. OK, maybe not the one below, but it's pretty darn cool.

Covington Facade Grant...and a front yard.

So why does a facade grant put things on hold? Well, because you suddenly stop and think, 'this was going to cost a heckofalot of money... if the city is willing to help us financially to do the work, shouldn't we try for it?' and then, unfortunately, you stop thinking about putting your own time and money into a project, when the city just might offer you $5000 to do the project.

I mean, they're not going to reimburse you for what you've already done, so why continue?

Here's why: Because we stopped the project and it's a year later and I just couldn't take the 'front yard' looking like a horrid mess for one more week. We've waited a year for the city to process the grant application.

It's still in process.

So the moral of the story is this: if you're going to do it, just do it. Nothing is free.

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Back to the story of the front yard :

So in the Spring of 2012, long before we started whacking away at the slab, or even thinking about cutting into it, we received nine huge blocks of historical limestone. Nine very heavy blocks of limestone from Covington homes, that had been demolished for various reasons, but had the fancy bits (mostly front steps, we believe) saved for posterity. Or in our case, it just saved our posteriors.

It took four trips and four guys to move them.

And maybe a new shock absorber or two along the way for a neighbor's truck. (Thanks, Terry & Daniel!)

Six were stacked on 2x4s, and the other three were lackadaisically strewn about the walkway. (I think we planned on some temporary design, but when we discovered just how hard they were to move, we just left them there to the side.)


Now, you have to realize that although they were all approximately 42" in length and had one side measuring 8" wide, we did have a six footer length one, and they all had varied depths. We easily determined that the 8" side was the commonality, and that would be the width of our limestone boundary. Then it got tricky.

The plan was to dig down around the perimeter of what was the slab about 10", lay down about 6" of gravel, and place the limestone on top. This was to help prevent heaving over time.

The problem was that from the East to the West, the property line next to the sidewalk dropped about 6" over 15 feet. This means we needed to adjust the digging depth so that the tops of the limestone steps were level all the way across the front... after all, we are going to install a wrought iron fence on them (eventually).

Part two of the problem was that, as mentioned previously, the depths of the stones varied from 9", 9.5", 10", 10.5" and up to 13" on the six-footer. So not only did we have to compensate for the slope of the ground, we also had to compensate for the varying depths of the stone.

So I set up a level line based upon a predetermined low point, (which was actually determined for us by being a massive piece of concrete we just couldn't remove) numbered the limestone steps with their measurements, and set a deadline for the stones to be moved.

The deadline was March 30th. Meaning, the stones got moved by 3/30, or DH was dead meat.

The last week of March, the digging had begun. We had .9/ton of gravel delivered for $64 from Ideal Supplies, Inc. in Ludlow, KY. We laid out a tarp on the sidewalk, and the driver nailed it perfectly. We also had six 40# bags of dry concrete mix delivered as well. As a last minute thought, we decided to use concrete mix as a small particulate leveling agent on top of the crushed limestone, which will hopefully also prevent partial heaving and cracking down the road.

BTW: it was way too much gravel. We used about .6/ton and gave the rest away on Craigslist. (and while I'm off on a tangent here..... when someone places an ad on Craigslist for free gravel, you are NOT supposed to then steal the tarp it was sitting on. That was just mean.)

We started with the biggest 6' block, moving the blocks with long orange arm-brace moving straps we'd seen the guys use on 'Ask This Old House'. We started on the far west side of the house and moved around to the front, making sure each varying depth matched the level line at the top of the blocks. We used a 2' level for the long length level, and a 6" level for the side to side leveling.  Each block needed minor adjustments, but it helped to level the gravel and dry concrete mix as much as possible before placement.

Oh, and before we moved the blocks, I marked each one of them to show which side was the top, and marked them each with a North/South or East/West marking so that there was no confusion as to which way the blocks were supposed to be put in place. With blocks this heavy, you don't want to have to figure it out mid-move.

After a few hours and a lot of water being consumed, all of the blocks were in place.

We decided against placing the last two on the east side of the house right now... eventually they should continue across the front of the house once the rest of the breezeway slab is removed... but that's phase two. For now, we dumped the larger of the remaining blocks in front of the steps, seeing as how it looked a little 'off' now that the slab was gone. 

Eventually, we'll level it and set it on bricks to raise up the height a few inches, but for now... it's in place.

I swooned for at least an hour. DH gets to live. Yay!

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The following weekend I ordered 2 cu. yards of garden soil/mulch mix delivered from H. Haffner & Sons (http://www.hafners.com/) for about $145 delivered. 

 

Again, I over-ordered, but after moving about seven wheel barrel fulls of soil into the backyard, we were ready to start a garden.

Now I'm looking for a welder to install the hoop and bow wrought iron fence. A facade grant could really come in handy just about now.... hint hint. :-)


BTW:  a/o 4/19/13 -- there's a guy in Clifton (Cincinnati OH) who has dozens of similar pieces of Sandstone. His ad is on Craigslist.

Project Trellis -Design

OK, things have been on hold, but it's time to get back on track. I know that if we let too much grass grow under our feet... well, I'LL be the one mowing it later.

I've started working on the trellis/gate design for the breezeway that I outright copied from our neighbor, Terry, as shown in the previous post about the trellis.

The difference between our gates is that we have 8' of breezeway to span, and he only had about five. This means adaptation!!

Here's what I've got so far, and overlayed the sketch to approximately where we'd be placing it. (Facing the front of the house, towards the street.)
















Size adjustments (and proportions) not withstanding, we're planning on a dual hinged, two part swinging gate, approximately four feet in width (Two doors of 2' each) as well as 2' stationary panels to hinge the doors to. I don't think it will be closed much, and probably never locked, but I DO want to discourage the ^&$#@*&^ stray cats from sneaking in from the street and holding a catnip vigil under the bird feeder.

The key thing we've decided upon is that the 4x4's that will be the main supports for the gate need to be dug into the ground at least 2' on each side, and the side that is on our property (right side of the picture) will have two 4x4's embedded in the ground. Only one of the 4x4's on the other side will be embedded (the one farthest from the brick wall) in order to avoid any entanglements with the next homeowners of that property.

Now to get a better, more accurate design... then a materials list.

Then a shopping list.

Yard, Fence, Gate.

Yeah, I've been hell on wheels when it comes to the garden. Interior trim be damned, I'm out a trim nail gun for the time being and you gotta make tomatoes while the sun shines.

I've about ruined my back, but I've learned a few important lessons I want to share.

First of all, any piece of cr@p land with dirt on it can be a garden. I just came back from Home Depot's garden center and they have a demo out on a concrete slab that is growing lush and beautiful 3" grass on it. On concrete. Yeah. With the right chicken wire, you can have grass growing on your walls.

With today's technology and fertilizers (organic and man-made) there is no such thing as a non-green thumb.

That being said, we had cr@p land with dirt on it. The first time we tilled the soil, we unearthed the dormant weed/grass seeds that had been waiting for decades to see the sun.

The original state, just as a reminder, was this:




















Big tree, no sun.














Just a chain link fence, millions of seed pods and the most godawful invasive weed-shrubs you can find (right side of picture, on the East side of the yard.). We've dug them all up, killed them, insulted their ancestry, and we're STILL getting little new creepers coming out of the ground like little fingers of the dead.

We took down the Catalpa tree...














































But then we still had the stump... which stayed as a fire pit for over a year.














When we needed to put up the fence, it had to go.














Unfortunately, there was about 70% more to this stump below ground than above it. The picture above is with the stump dug out and half of it already removed.














Then we sank a 12' 4x4 and put up the rest of the fence.

OK, now to present time: We have the new dogeared wood panel fence completely up in the back yard. The elaborate sliding gate we had planned on has been put on hold. We needed a gate pronto, and we we're having a hell of a time finding the right tracks, wheels, etc. for the earlier design, so that plan is on hold for now. The good news is that we can re-use the same materials if we need to rebuild anything.

So we settled.














We took a regular 6x8 fence panel, reinforced it with metal nailers at the corners, then used 2 turnbuckles to keep the panel square and used it for the larger panel on the south side of the gate, added mojo hinges, a cane bolt, a latch and a $30 wheel with a spring. This one swings outward.

The other gate panel had to be built from scratch, with 2x4 PT lumber and individual slats we'd salvaged from the other panels when building the rest of the fence. We used one 2x4 diagonal cross brace and another turnbuckle. It swings inward.

It's not great, the right side is a bit wobbly still, but it works.

Now that we have a secure garden, it's on to planting. I think that's worthy of another post altogether.

I've been very very busy.

*PS a quick note on the first image in this post... I made 2 shelves with leftover fence rails on the gate by cutting the slat to size and screwing it sideways onto the gate panel structure supports with 4-5 screws each. Makes a great place for seedlings, light tools or a wine glass :-)

Putting up a fence and a gate

Now that we have the tree down, we've started planning for the new gate.

The old chain link fence is godawful and partially down due to the tree coming down anyway, so now's a good a time as ever.

We're looking at stock fencing from Home Depot, and it looks like we're going to need about 20 sections and a gate for the off street parking area.

The gate is what we've mainly been contemplating.... how to open and close it. My idea is a set of 2 rollers on the back side of the moving gate, and runners on the stable side upon which the rollers will glide. (see image) Hubby's idea is building a tall gate
overhang over the top of the gate opening from which the gate would hang, like a barn door.

I thought that could be a problem if taller delivery trucks wanted access, but we'll see. It may just come down to ease of building and cost.