All fenced in

The ordinary is fenced, ya’ll.  The fence contractor made quick work of the installation, and now the yard is suitable for wayward hounds.

The picket fence out front was built to resemble what was there before, minus the falling apart part.  The wood is pressure-treated pine, so we’ll let it dry out over the winter before painting it white in the spring.

The house has looked better.  With plastic in the windows, a whole lot less paint on the siding, and faded-paint shutters, it takes some vision to realize that progress is being made.

Out back, we built a new section of picket fence similar to the one in front.

For now this means that we have to go through a gate to get to the back door.  Long term, we think we might relocate the door to where the small window is on the left side of the picture.  We know from photos that the door lived in that spot in a former life:

In the rear and side yards, the fence transitions to a post and wire type.  Can’t see it?  Exactly.

After getting the fence around the yard ship-shape, the segment along our parking area started to look really bad by comparison.

It leaned like a drunken sailor and was missing several pickets, so I took it out this weekend.  The posts were almost completely rotted through, so knocking the sections over took little more than a forceful shove.  While I was at it, I cleaned out the culvert pipe that passes beneath the driveway and raked the leaves from the drainage swale.

I wasn’t certain that this would be a good change, but it makes the yard much brighter and more friendly.  We’ll probably add some plants this spring to restore some of the screening the fence provided.  Yes, that’s a Porta-John.  No worries, our indoor plumbing still works.  But with painters on site for at least a month, it’s a necessary yard ornament.