The Fence: We're Actually Building

With prep work finally done, it's building time! And this fence has a lot of components per section (and there were 14 sections)

1. 6X6 posts
2. Pressure treated 2x8 on the bottom
3. 2x6 sitting on top of that
4. 2 2x2's sitting on top of the 2x6
5. 1x8 fence boards staggered (the amount per section depends how long the section is, but about 2 per foot), that are sandwiched between the previous 2x2's
6. Then the 2 2x2's again that the top of the fence boards are sandwiched between just like on the bottom
7. Another 2x6 on top
8. And a 2x8 capping that
9. Not to mention 2x2's on the left and right of all the fence boards on both sides of the fence

That is A LOT of wood

After calculating all the wood and materials we needed and having most of it delivered...



...we got to building. But it wasn't that easy. Or, well, it should have been, but for some reason we literally had to measure some things 3-5 times because we kept on getting things wrong. Remember this post? Yup. Me, Chris and my dad were just 3 idiots building a fence

But build we did. Slowly but surely. We went section by section, laughing at our stupidity all along the way (well, laughing when I wasn't kicking down fence boards because I was so "amazed" at our stupidity). I had done the math to figure out how to best use the materials we had for all the various lengths we needed (not each section was the same, they ran from 5 feet wide to 8 feet wide, depending on where they were). And piece by piece things got assembled

We worked out a system of my dad and I getting everything cut and Chris assembling it. Once we got to the point of fence boards getting put in my dad and I would help keep things together and make sure the spacing was right. While we held things in place Chris would attach the 2 2x2's and 2x6 to the top that kept everything secure.

Each panel took a while, but little by little we made progress

Like the funhouse fence? Now you can see our two primer sides hitting up against each other where there is overlap. When we paint we wouldn't be able to hit the parts of the boards that overlap, so prepriming them got the job done.

Piece by piece it was looking like a fence



When we came back the next weekend to work more it had rained a lot. And the seesaws (as Wendy called them :) hehe) took a beating with the weight of the boards and the wet ground


Pretty funny!

With new energy for a new weekend we plugged away, still working on assembling all the sections of fence


(As you can see both primed sides are facing the backyard on the hill because the neighbors wanted to "stain" their side to match the rest of their backyard fence. Although upon inspection of their fence it's actually painted not stained, so I don't really know what they're talking about. Oh well.)

And finally, the fence was built (notice that we were able to reuse a whole panel? Awesome.)

Of course the building isn't actually done, we've still got the finishing touches...