Just What It Needed

The last post shows photos from around the house including our most recent project, the picket fence.  Since we arrived we have been talking about the house's "need" for a white picket fence.  We wanted Bonnie to have a contained place to run, that way we didn't have to chase her all the way to the next county, and for the dogs to have an exercise area.  And, lets face it, what's an old farmhouse without a white picket fence, right?

We started by taking a look at the "lay of the land."  There were a few obstacles that had to be considered, most of which were 100-year-old trees.  As any one who has ever dug a post hole knows, a tree root can ruin the best of plans.  But, thanks to God, we didn't encounter anything other than small roots and rocks that were easy enough to conquer.  After deciding where to put the fence, we put a sting line down that would give us a visual of where the fence would be and the area it would cover.  That simple thing was quite a dog and pony show.  Even though the string was florescent pink, we all tripped on it about 100 times and I eventually got a little... "passionate" and "took it down" (actually I got pretty mad and ended up pulling up the anchor stake and throwing it on the roof of one of the outbuildings).

After digging what seemed like 100 post holes (with hand diggers, no machine) we put up the fence structure and got ready for the pickets.  Luckily, we consulted Indiana Landmarks (because of our  preservation covenants) before going ahead with the fence.  It turns out that had we used wide pickets (5 1/2") we might not have been staying "true" to the house and that would have not been a good thing.  But we did and we ended up cutting the ones we had planned to use in half and all was well.

So we finished the fence and gates (3 of them) and got ready to paint.  You can probably tell from the picture that there are quite a few pickets.  We got "barn and fence paint" and started painting.  Turns out that brushing paint on was a very time intensive task.  After some brainstorming we decided to get a Wagner Power Painter (NOT a product endorsement) and got that route.  Well, DON'T DO THAT!!!  The fact is that the amount of overspray resulted in a lot of wasted paint.  I quickly abandoned that idea (but kept the sprayer for use on the outbuildings) and went back to the brush.  We have taken turns spending time painting the fence and (as of this posting) are about 85% complete.  The truth is that each of us has enjoyed our quiet time painting.  The wind blows and the leaves fall and it is a very therapeutic activity.

Well, it's time to end this post and head over to the house.  Our goal is 100% completion by sundown tonight.  The interesting thing about this is the number of people who have stopped their cars and complimented our work.  The comments have been positive and humbling as, again, we see the emotional connection that our neighbors have to our house.  We are looking forward to having each of them in once we finish.

So here it is again ...  Come by and take a look some time.  We would love to see you.

--Kevin