Gretchen Adventures: Fence removal!

So. There's a chainlink fence that runs along the back of the neighborhood and along the back of my yard. It's ugly. It's at least a foot away from my neighbor's fence which means that weeds and garbage can collect back there without me being able to clear it out. Plus Jack has gotten stuck back there and Dan had to figure out a way to hop in there and get him out.

It's an eye-sore and I just hate it. I was advised to just plant some creepers along it that could go up it and eventually block it. Whose fence is it anyhow? And is it on the property line or is my neighbor's fence on the property line? Who would I even call to find out? The thing is: my neighbors in the back built their own fence so they don't use it. My neighbors to the side each built their own fences so this stupid fence just goes between the fences... Why do I need it in my yard?

BEFORE: ugly chainlink fence in yard

So yesterday, feeling energetic, I decided to just see if I could remove this fence myself. I used some wire cutting plyers to cut through the chainlink on either side of my yard. Then I worked to undig the bottom of the fence, as well as three 10+ foot long emply PVC pipes that were buried in the yard, empty, broken, pointless, except that one was sticking about three feet out of the ground... ??

Then I rolled the fence ends together, just in case in the future someone tells me to put it back up, I'll just have to re-attach the ends... which is when I called on M&D for some parental guidance, i.e. help with the heavy fence. They helped me finish rolling it up and remove the posts.

Cut through the chainlink, rolled it up (with help), Dad removed the posts

And that's about when I met my back neighbor "Wilson" style as he stuck his head over the blue fence to see what the noise was. Apparently the owner of his house (his dad? partner? friend? landlord?) has lived there 35 years and remembered when my whole yard was horse pasture. He originally put up the chainlink fence (CRAP!) but then built the blue fence around their own yard, and hoped that the people living in my house would build a fence to keep from looking into the rest of their yard. That didn't happen so they built another fence, then the neighbors on the sides built fences too. He asked if I was planning to build a fence... um, not if I can help it! And why would I? He has a perfectly nice fence there already. No need to have two fences lining each other, is there? Lucky for me, he was very nice and didn't mind that I'd taken down the chainlink, just as long as Titus doesn't dig. He also said he didn't care if I painted the fences so that they matched on my side -- that's project part 2.

AFTER: no unsightly fence!