Fence Fruition

One of the things I knew I wanted to do even before I knew what house I was buying was to have a fenced in area for the dog. I was looking forward to a world where you could just let the dog out to do her business, especially when there's snow and ice on the ground.  And after what seems like a lot longer than it should have taken... the vision is a reality!

You wouldn't think this would be a complicated project... you pick out the kind of fence you want and you have them install it.  Somehow, it wasn't that simple for me.

I had this idea that since I really didn't know what I was doing, it might be better to have a landscape designer oversee both the landscaping and the fencing.  That kind of worked.  However she neglected to mention that her 'fence guy" only works on weekend.  Ugh.  So it took a long time to get the show on the road.  Also I expected that having one person overseeing both would simplify communication.  It did - they just didn't tell me anything unless I tracked them down and asked.  Word to the wise- if you're not doing a major overhaul of all your landscape design, just hire a fence company yourself.  I paid extra for pretty much no value add.

Once we finally got things moving, like stuff was measured etc., I finally met my next door neighbors.  I told them about the fence and they showed me the stakes for the property line.  Great, very helpful.  Except the property line seems to run through the middle of my water feature?  What?  Who installs a fountain across a property line!  You can see the string I ran bisecting the rocks where the water flows.

So they came out to remeasure and figure out what to do.  Needless to say the first thing they said was, "it will cost more".  Then we had the debate about how much of the fence to run on the neighbors property.  They had said it was ok, but I didn't feel good about it.  Plus they're planning to sell the house in a few years and you never know what will happen when the new people move in.  So we came up with the totally uninventive solution to run the fence along the property line until we hit the water fountain and wrap up around it on the neighbors side just for that part.  In the end it didn't look too bad.

We had finally reached the first day of installation and I was so excited.  I was a little less excited when I saw the fence wasn't exactly what I had requested.  After waiting two months I decided that it was close enough and kept my mouth shut.  I just wanted it done, and if I opened my mouth we were starting over.  However I couldn't keep my mouth shut when the fence guy who only works weekend said "oh yeah, I'm not coming tomorrow.  something came up.  see you next Saturday."  Grrrr.  But after many assurances that it would be finished the following weekend, it actually was.

Once the fence was in, trampled plants and all, the landscapers came back to dog proof the fence so Miss Maisy cannot dig her way out by going under the fence. 

Now the vision is almost reality.   Maisy is enjoying sniffing around the yard and occasionally eating the dirt.  If I'm going to beat the snow, I've got about 2-3 months to train the pooch to go out into the yard and do her business in a timely way.  It's been about 2 1/2 years since she last did this but she's catching on.  It's kind of ridiculous how happy I was to see her trot outside and pee in the yard last night.  I'm still smiling.