I hope you had a good weekend! We had a pretty productive one despite the rain that moved in on Sunday. I finished up some scrap wood projects, and we got the first row down on our paver patio. (Only 1 million more to go!)
Earlier this summer we decided that we needed to install a fence. Our dogs were on the road to often, and every time I was outside with the kids or dogs, I would find myself constantly yelling someone's name to check and see where they were. We are in the country, but by country standards, we have a pretty small lot (2 acres). I called Lowes and asked them to come and give me an estimate. I can't say enough good things about our Brookings Lowes. Not only was our contact Morgan very patient when I asked him to draw up a million different configurations, but he was also honest and checked up on the project as it was being completed. After running some numbers and talking with my husband, we decided we would have Lowes put a beautiful wood fence on the front and side of our property and we would tackle a woven wire fence on the other two sides. The sides that have woven wire are mostly hidden by trees, so it didn't make sense to put the money into something no one would see.
Once we made our decision and signed the paperwork, we spoke with our installer Ryan. I also can't say enough good things about Ryan. His team was very polite, friendly and they did a pretty amazing job on our fence. Not a single picket or post is out of line. I can say after doing posts on one side of our property for woven wire, my husband and I know how hard that is! We tried our hardest to keep them in line and they still are a little wonky.
While Ryan's team was working on our fence, I noticed there was quite a bit of scrap wood being cut off each picket and post. We decided to go with a 4 foot fence, but the materials come 6 foot long. Considering they installed 400 feet of fence, that's a ton of wood being hauled away. I went over and asked if I could keep it. After all, I did pay for all the materials. They were more than happy to leave the wood (and even offered to unload the wood they had put on the truck). I decided only to keep about half of it because my husband looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned trying to store all that wood.
What is left of our pile after I finished the deck
So, I had a big pile of treated wood that I could play with. My husband got called out for a injured dog, so I decided me and the kids would have some fun. All together we built this mini deck for our grill in about 3 hours. The kids brought me the wood and with my assistance, they did all the drilling. Since the pickets were already cut to 2 feet a piece, we didn't have to do any cutting except for the pieces that went on the very front. The 4 x 4 post scraps were our base and then we put the pickets across the top for the decking. Since this deck isn't going to get heavy use, I was comfortable using the pickets as the top. If we were making a deck for dining or entertaining, I would have used actual decking materials. The deck turned out pretty good for a 2 year and 5 year old making it.
We love our little deck for grilling. This project would also be a great idea for a deck off a play house or a stage for kids. As a side note, it's hard to see in the pictures, but we allow plenty of space between the garage and the grill. We also did a test to make sure the siding wasn't getting warm. You can melt siding with a grill up next to the house, not to mention it's a fire hazard! Also, we are getting a fireproof grill mat to go below the grill to make sure the deck its self isn't a danger. Lesson is, you're responsible for making sure it's safe for the type of grill, deck and house you have.
Another fence related small project I completed this weekend was some hand painted signs for our front gate and the gate between our house and the neighbors. I simply printed out what I wanted them to say, used carbon paper to transfer the pattern over and carefully painted. Finally, each sign got a couple coats of poly to seal them up.
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