New Fence and [actual] Skunkworks

December has been a busy month.  One of the activities we've been working on is our new backyard fence!  When we first moved into our house the fence was pretty run down.  We managed to perk it up with a fresh, thick coat of stain and a few extra nails here and there.  The fence was holding up okay but there were lots of rotting boards and our gate was limping along. In October we finally decided it was time to replace it.

After weighing the pros and cons between doing it ourselves or using a contractor, we decided to go with a contractor.  We have 150 linear feet of fence and neither of us wanted to embark on a project where we had very little experience.  We proceeded to compare contractors and get several quotes.  In the end we decided on a 7 foot, board on board, metal post, cedar fence.  It cost a pretty penny, but I'm very happy with the results; and we went with a contractor that was very responsive with great attention to detail.

Here are a few "before" pictures.
We don't share a fence with any of our neighbors; at least not from a backyard perspective.  Only one section of our fence was being used by our neighbor as a storage space and they were very agreeable and accommodating.

Come December, our contractor got our house mapped for wires and utilities under the ground.  It was a spray paint mess!
Eeks!  This was a benefit to using the professionals.  Despite the electricity lines and cable lines, the construction went smoothly.

Progress pictures:
We had only one evening without a fence and it was really strange!  We don't have much in our backyard but I felt sorta vulnerable with our missing fence!

One of the cool parts about the construction is their post hole drill.  This is not your grandfather's post-digger.  This was a 3 foot long auger with at least 5 inches in diameter.  And it got the job done FAST!

Day 2 we saw wood going up!  I was a little frazzled this morning because we changed a few elements of our previously discussed design plan.  We'd planned to have a level fence all the way around but instead we now have several steps following the elevation.  We also changed our gate from a breakaway section to a continuous top cap to add more structure.  I was iffy on this but I'm happy with the extra support the continuous top cap offers.
The above pictures were about midway through the process.  The fence was enclosed but the details were not yet done.

And by day 3 the entire fence was DONE!  These are a few "after" pictures:
I'm thrilled with the construction and look forward to getting it stained soon!  
Bottom Left: Champagne makes every occasion a little better!  Jordan and I toasted to our beautiful new (and expensive) fence!  Cheers to home-ownership!

The first week we had the fence it smelled A-mazing in our backyard because of all the fresh cedar.  That wonderful smell was soon interrupted by the stench of a terrible skunk.  Late at night on a Sunday evening we couldn't figure out where the awful smell was coming from.  Low and behold, a skunk had burrowed it's way into our backyard!  Perhaps he was drawn to the earthy smell of the wood or maybe he was poisoned.  Either way, this skunk disrupted our household and several of our neighbors.  
Here are a few pictures of this darn skunk sleeping right next to our back glass door!  Crazy huh?  We are grateful that we saw him before letting Abby outside.  The next several hours we spent trying to get the darn thing out of our backyard.  We used several different strategies including bright light, noise, even poking him...

At any rate, this skunk certainly livened up our night with smelly drama.  You can see our "skunkworks" in the video below!

That's all I've got for you all!  Tip for the day: Always turn the light on before letting your pets outside!  

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