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Building a new front fence featuring vehicle access gate & side access gate as a Birthday present for my wife after the 2020 crisis
So 2020 was a horrible year for us, but the Covid19 crisis really took the cake. My wife was on the frontline as a healthcare worker throughout the crisis which had been exhausting and soul stomping for her. Come the end of the year and she had to take a training day just before her Birthday. I hatched a plan and convinced her parents to have a "girls night" at the end of her 2 days away, so in 3 days we built this awesome fence.
Our old fence backed up quite far, leaving a lot of the front yard unusable, cars only really parked there and that was rare. The new plan was to rip this down and replace it with a much larger, sturdier fence to give our dogs some extra room to play, extend our garden and provide vehicle access for our eventual trailer. I've been picking away at Liz for some time by this point, and I knew her 2 main inclusions were:
- A lockable side access gate that can be opened from the front (when it's unlocked already)
- A lockable vehicle access gate that goes directly to the road.
As always, I enlisted my Dad to do the hard yards being a carpenter for most of his life, we had days 1 - 2 by ourselves before we were joined by friends and family to assist us on day 3 to complete it just before she got home.
Materials -
Day 1 - We started out the day by creating our lines and digging the holes for the posts. After 30 minutes of doing this manually, I noped out and called in a digger. For $200, this thing got the job done incredibly fast and we could move on to the next part.
We then laid out all our posts and the required concrete to go in them, placed the posts into the ground and carefully mixed in the concrete.
We ensured each post was level as it was drying and marked out the lines for where we would be connecting each post to each other. Now needing the concrete to dry a bit more, we called that day 1.
Day 2 - We started construction of the actual fence. We needed to dig out a trench for the sleepers to be placed in, level and able to be connected to one another, which was frustrating on the slope. With this done it was secured to the posts and we backfilled the excess dirt drilled out to secure it even further. We then connected each post with the horizontal beams before getting to work on the panels.
To my delight, my wifes brothers and father came along to assist in the build, making placing this up a lot faster.
By the end of the day, we had completed most of the panelling, giving us a lot more breathing room on the final day.
Day 3 - We had an army of people arrive to help finish this project and to greet my wife for her Birthday surprise / lunch. We had a lot to do, including:
Removing the old fence and side access gate
Cutting and removing rubbish
Finish up any backfilling
Creating the frame of the gates, mounting them, panelling them and ensuring they can function / lock
Removing the old letterbox
And installing a nice plaque with the names of the people and businesses who came on the day and helped build the fence or donated money towards its construction.
And then we were done! All we had to do was wait for Elizabeth to arrive and see what we had made.
And I can tell you she was pretty shocked / stoked
She instantly fell in love with the fence, commenting on the accuracy of what she wanted and thanked everyone who helped. She especially loved the vehicle access and the new found room our Luna had to play in now.
Costs - In total, this fence cost me $1600 (rounded up), which includes the digger, sleepers & rail, gate locks, timber, fixings and screws. I purchased the new letterbox on the day and properly installed it after spraying the fence with a double coat of paint to protect it from the sun. It would also eventually feature a nice brushed street sign that illuminates at night, making finding our home easier at night.
The biggest thing for us was an increase in the value of our home, for what this fence cost versus what we gained on our property report, it's easily one of my top picks for a suburban DIY to increase the value of your home.
The fence was an instant head turner in our street, being the only painted fence of its style in our street and is so much more sturdy than the friendly neighbour fencing that is standard in the area. Our dogs enjoy their new play space, and we enjoy being able to park our trailer inside our gated backyard.
And that's it! 2 years later and this fence is still going strong. I really cannot thank the friends and family who helped us complete this project, this wonderful gift and expression of love made a massive difference for my wife and her mental health back in 2020 and we continue to love it to this day. Happy to answer any questions if you have any.
What a wonderful project, @Remarka6le! Undoubtedly, it must have been fantastic for your wife to receive such a heartfelt gift from those around her. The fence looks marvellous too, and I love that you included an access gate for vehicles.
Many thanks for sharing this story and your project.
Mitchell
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