Fencing! Step 1!

We moved into our house in the summer of 2009. It was pretty perfect for us at the time. We had been living in a Row in downtown that had no yard, no front porch, and because it was the center unit, no side windows.

Not saying it was a bad place to live. We did have a spiral staircase in our living room that led to a HUGE master bedroom. It was a bit like living in a treehouse though... Fun, but very limiting.

So, this quaint little yard with garage (And many projects...), was perfect. And then we found out we were pregnant. Suddenly, this cute cute yard was a death trap (Because that's what happens when you're pregnant. Suddenly, you notice the fence is falling over. You realize the trees are ripping the fence out of the concrete posts. The rotting fruit it drops is a health risk. Let's not even get started on strong gusts of wind, and traffic in the alley...).

First, we had to go through the city. It turned out the trees that were pushing our fence over were Mulberry Trees (Actually more of a weed the a tree...) and were causing an issue by growing into the power lines. So, free tree service! Down to the stump the went, and stayed, for about a year. We tried pushing the fence back up, we tried reinforcement, nothing worked.

So, when Hubby came home with a new fence option, we jumped a bit (He has a knack for Re-Purposing found items). First, came the great fence removal - with care - since we had mismatched fences in our backyard. (A 4 ft chainlink fence on the left side of the yard, a collapsing 6ft fence on the right, and the 8ft fence in the rear that we were so happy to replace!)

Yeah. Check out that sexy yard.

In defense of the alley - the house behind us had been vacant for several years. Luckily, that's no longer the case.

So, following our trend of re-purposing found objects, we decided to keep all salvageable materials in hope of fixing our super mismatched fence scenario.

Aww. Yeah. Our yard was like this for a week. It freaked me out. You know. Since I had a six month old at this point, and was already preggo with number 2.

Enter - THE NEW FENCE. (Because I blinked, and it was up.)

It's actually a highway grade sound reducing fence... which is amazing, considering if you look up at the previous 2 photos, you can KINDA see one of the 2 major roadways in our city. While we're not on that street, anything to reduce sound helps when you live in the city.

So, while I still miss the green trees, I don't miss their rotting fruit, nor do I miss the sense of insecurity that the fence could fall over at any minute. A definite win in my book!