Because of the reno, we missed using our patio during the nice weather months of this year. But we’re trying to salvage as much as we can by doing some PATIO UPGRADES, i.e. replacing the back fences! In truth, we actually paid for this blasted fence months ago but Long Fence apparently takes a Long Time To Do Anything. Anyway…
Stepping Back in Time
Here is what the patio originally looked like. This pic is actually from the listing so when I saw it the first time I was mainly jazzed about having a parking spot. The fence is on the party lines so we had mismatched styles between the neighbors. Both sides certainly looked weathered. Taken in Nov 2014:
Shortly after we moved in our western neighbor started a renovation to add an addition to the back of his house. Here’s a pic I took in June 2015:
Up until last month, not too much had changed. We bought some patio furniture mainly. It still wasn’t the most welcoming of patios. Using the word patio loosely. It was more like a functional driveway.
From last month. The fence is barely hanging on, facing southeast:
Facing southwest:
Facing the house. You can see that the neighbors didn’t put up a new fence after their reno. They actually had to
break up part of our driveway to build the extension. We asked them to not repave the concrete afterwards. I’ll
explain why a little later:
Facing the house from the other side. Thambi and Mike are wondering why I am always taking so many pictures:
To the Present
After months of waiting for Long Fence to schedule the installation, they finally were available. I think we might have waited 4 months or 5 months between the initial payment and when they began installation. Someone needs to figure out how to Amazon Prime-ify fences. Mike stayed home to watch them that day, which was a good call because apparently they were going to install the fence in the wrong place. Sighs.
Here it is!
We went with a simple style after consulting with our neighbors, since it’s a shared fence. Facing the alley:
I’m not sure if you can tell in the pictures above, but the old fence on the right used to nearly meet the utility pole. It wasn’t actually on the property line. So when we installed this new one, we “gained” a couple feet.
After they installed the side fences, Long Fence informed Mike that they weren’t going to install the back fence that same day. They couldn’t tell us exactly when but they wanted to install the side fences first so that they could measure the width in order to build the back fence, which made sense but it would have been nice if they told us that ahead of time.
About two weeks later, Long Fence installed the back fence during the work day without notifying us and locked it. We found out when our dog walker called to tell us he couldn’t get in the house! So Mike had to scurry home to let Thambi out! ARRRRGGGGG, LONG FENCE!!!
So just beware if you use Long Fence. I will say that the actual fence is solidly constructed at least. And I think it’s pretty :)
The coolest part of the back fence is that while there is a door that we obviously swing open most of the time, the other side of it can also swing open if we want! We wanted a gate designed so that it could be closed most of the time for privacy (and so we weren’t staring at our car or the alley all the time), but we also have a small house and wanted the option to be able to use the full driveway for social occasions. We drew a little diagram for Long Fence of what we wanted, and although their communication is terrible and they take forever, they did deliver on our special order. So I guess that is something. A closer look at the back fence:
A cozier patio
A now we have a cozy patio! There is more to do to warm up the joint but the bones are in place now!
Mike having a brewsky on a summer night:
Thambi is able to join us sans leash:
Remember that strip of concrete that the neighbors took up to build their extension? Well, we are going to plant some stuff in that area for some greenery! Haven’t gotten around to that yet but we might move these evergreens in there. At least the not dead ones. And maybe not this year but you know, eventually.
You can also see that the grill is heating up some charcoal. We decided to test drive the new patio by test driving a gift we got for Christmas from Mike’s parents: a pizza stone!
We alllllmooost got it right. The pizza ended up being rather doughy and we also had a helluva time getting it onto the pizza stone. So a few more test drives to perfect our technique and then we’ll invite some of you all over for a slice or two!
And now…a puppy picture.
Thambi now has free reign on our patio, as he slowly takes over more of our house. Here he is eyeing his next conquest:
Don’t be fooled by that cute puppy face. He takes no prisoners.