Cliff May Restovation

Well, I can now cross "rent Home Depot flatbed truck" off my bucket list. Earlier this week I was able to pickup the bulk of the lumber needed for the fence. It was actually pretty painless, 5 minutes of showing insurance / driver's license and $20 to rent for 75 minutes.

I know this isn't exactly the right tool for the job, but I really wanted a chance to play with my pocket hole jig to see how it works. Also, in my fence design the horizontal stringers between the posts won't carry much downward weight; they are mainly there to keep the 23/32nds plywood from warping. I'm also trying to avoid big, ugly, metal bracketing if at all possible. Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out and while 4 screws per side might be a little overboard, they can hold my weight.

I'm finding it's kind of nice to put in on an hour or so on the fence each night after I've (mostly) finished up with work for the day. I know a lot of people are a bit daunted by doing a fence from scratch and not doing the typical post / rail / dog-ear design. To those people: don't settle for mediocrity. Even if this project ends up a failure (though I think we've already passed over that hump), it will have only cost me some wood. I've been learning a lot. Here's what it looks like right now; it's starting to take shape.