Replacing the Fence

Our poor sad fence. When we bought the house it came with a nearly 30 year old fence. What you can't see here is that it's being held up from the neighbor's yard with extra boards. It's falling apart, dissolving really, and super short. I'm not sure if you can see it but along the top board there is also a metal pipe running the length of the fence. A previous owner thought that it would be a good idea to attach electrical to a fence (not at all to code) and we had to cut that off at the box and take it down.

Luckily, when a fence is super old and broken it also comes down quickly! Seriously we had this ripped down in about 30 minutes.

We decided to go with the metal posts that will hide within the fence, giving it a cleaner look.

We let the neighbor have the "pretty side" of the fence (I'm standing in their yard) as I just wanted a consistent view but didn't have a preference on which side I saw.

All total it took 3 and a half days. The first day was both of us and both of our neighbors, the second day the neighbor was there for a few hours, and then we wrapped up the rest of it. I got pretty good at hanging pickets. And it turned out so pretty! We still have two more fences to go but with all of this experience I think the next one will go a lot faster.

Hot Tub Removal

On the plus side, when we bought this house it came with a pool. BUT it also came with a nasty broken hot tub that I was pretty sure one of my kids would eventually fall into.

The old owner had already drilled holes in the bottom for drainage so there was no saving this thing. I called around and I was told it was going to cost $400 to have a company come out and remove it but then I realized, hey, I have a respirator and a sawzall. I can do this myself for the cost of a single dump fee!

***If you are going to do this, make sure that any power and/or water lines are disconnected. You don't want any nasty surprises (especially if you're standing in wet mushy mess that wouldn't mix well with electrical)***

Seriously, wear the respirator. Fiberglass is not something you want to be breathing.

Once I had the main cuts done I did have to bring in a sledgehammer and crowbar to help me break up the pieces along with my sawzall.

With all of the junk out of the way I was ready to start framing in the replacement floor. First I checked on what supports I already had in there but it turned out that I was close enough to just tie in to the existing structure (but I still added another anyway because I like to over engineer).

And voila, we have a flat deck! I still need to sand down the existing deck and stain the whole thing but it is now kid safe!

Wooden Spool to Oversized Outdoor Coffee Table

I have had this 6.5' wooden spool round in my garage for a couple of years waiting for me to get around to this project. As I'm cleaning up the shop I decided it was time to make my oversized outdoor coffee table!

The legs are really simple to make. You'll need 2 8' 4x4s for the crosspieces and legs, 8 large screws (6") and a couple of bolts (8") with washers and nuts. You'll definitely want to predrill your holes.

A couple of Simpson 4x4 brackets to hold the legs to the top and you're done! This summer I will get the chairs and umbrella sorted out but as you can see the weather right now is still pretty snow/rain so I'll stick to the indoor project mostly for the next few months.