Oh, who knows how many into it I am now!

So I've spent the past ....what? 3 weeks building a fence. This is one of the toughest jobs I've done so far. Mostly because I had only like 3 hours of help from my mom in that whole time. The rest was all me! So I mostly painted the past week. I added flower boxes and flowers to the fence and I'm very happy with it.

My purpose in life

I started this blog because I am hoping to inspire someone. I feel like my purpose here is help women realize their full potential. I get scared and nervous with each new project I start because it always seems like it's something I've never done before. But I always say if I can just rip it apart then I will be forced to put it back together. So that's the start. And it's super exciting! To rip down a wall or pull out water damaged insulation or 2 x 4's. It's so empowering!
Then stage 2 hits....and I feel like man, I'm never going to be able to figure this out. And I make mistakes. This blog and my work is not about perfection. If I wanted perfection in everything I would have just picked one thing and perfected it over the years. I am not about perfection. I am about doing something to the best of MY abilities and making sure it is safe and structurally sound. So I muddle through this stage, doing research on google and youtube. And at some point I feel like it's finally coming together.
Enter stage 3. The nervousness is over. I get into a groove and I can see the end. I feel great about the work I've done but more importantly, with the feedback I get, I feel like I have inspired someone. It might be for someone to get out and exercise a little by walking. Or it might be a project around the house that you didn't think you could accomplish but are starting. Because that's where the magic begins. With the first initial effort. I appreciate you reading this and I hope I have inspired you to think bigger today. Do not settle for less. Go out and make a difference. Life is so very short!

So I'm renaming this Day 5. Fence

I'm renaming this Day 5 (Tuesday) b/c I took a few days off and this really is day 5 of actually working.
I have one child, my 7 year old daughter, Lyla, who is home every day in the summer. She is going into 2nd grade. Meet Lyla

She's a lunatic. And don't worry....this was just for the picture. When she turned it on I was behind her building the saw. She insists on working in flip flops and sometimes PJ's. Ugh. Luckily she's a kid and her attention span lasts a whole 10 minutes, 11 if I'm lucky.

My son, Axton, who is 5 still has the option of going to his private pre K. Although in the summer I cut the hours to make it less expensive. So he goes like 3 and 1/2 days a week. Gives me a break from sibling fighting. 

Today I got caught in a lot of other crap. My front yard needed a mowing for the past 2 weeks so I had to do it. By the time I was finished (at noon) I was so grimey dirty. It was hot as balls today!!

I started back at the fence around 1:00 pm but ran into some issues. This project is beginning to simulate a puzzle. I have to evaluate the last pieces of the materials I got for free to make the fence and arrange everything just right. After about an hour of rearranging I finally felt good about the placement.

About 2 hours into cutting and screwing in pieces I got to a panel I decided to make out of some picket fencing I got. But I needed the nail gun b/c it was going to take up too much time to drill holes and screw in screws. So I got the nail gun out. Then realized my nails were too long. Ugh! Back to Home Depot. When I got back my girl helped me figure out a great design for that panel. Starting to get excited about the design!

Here's where we ended, due to rain, on Day 5.

Day 5 of my Fence

My two little ones (Lyla is 7 and Axton is 5) went to their dads house this week. So that's why I started my fence and was hoping to get it done by the time they came back home. Not finished and I only have today and tomorrow. They return tomorrow evening. But I ended up with more fence that I bargained for.
Originally this project was going to be making a fence from only pallets and PT posts. But when I when to pick up the pallets they had old wood fencing also so this project took a turn.

Day 1 (Monday) I rented a truck after purchasing 14 PT posts and 8 bags of concrete mix. Then went and picked up pallets and like (4) 8' wood panels. Oh, and 2 panels of picket fencing. I was happy. Took me like 3 trips and 3 hours to do it but all by myself. Returned the truck and came home and started digging for posts.

Day 2 (Tuesday) Still digging. I got in like 5 posts. I rented an auger for $50. for the day but it didn't help me because it ended up that I was mostly digging in blacktop (the alley) or in tree roots.

Day 3 (Wednesday) I had to take out like 4 posts because they were wobbly. Apparently I do not mix concrete very well right in the hole. So I pulled those out, knocked off the concrete with a hammer and dug the hole a little deeper. Mixed the concrete in a bucket first....then put in the hole. This method works much better. And then I got up 2 panels and one "panel" of pallets.

The problem with most of my projects is that this is the first time doing them. It seems each one is unique. So there's a learning curve. It's quite a pain but I no longer beat myself up about it, thinking damn, just wasted all that time.

Day 4 (Friday) I took off Thursday because I felt like I was hit by a truck. So Friday my mom was off from work and offered to help. I worked her into the ground. I didn't mean to but she offered to pay for the truck if I wanted to go back and get more pallets. So we did. And for 4 hours just kept going back. Probably 3 trips. I ended up getting 16 or 17 panels (8') of picket fencing along with 2 gates and  16 posts! Could not believe my luck. Only problem then is that now the fencing project has just grown larger. But I am not killing myself to get that part done now. That can wait.

And I also lucked out and got 2 large gates as well! 

So today starts Day 5 (Saturday). Here's where I left off yesterday.

I have 3 panels up and I filled in the gaps on the pallet "panel". It started to rain and that was so much nicer to work in so I kept going until it was raining too hard for my tools to safely be out there. And I needed my drill to put the decking screws in. So I quit around 5 or 6:00.

I'm off to work now.

Fence

So I decided to build a fence. Budget is really $0 but since I have a home depot card I wanted to keep it under $400. A fence around my entire house that the fence company told me (in wood) would be over $4,500. Yup. I think big! This is now day 3 but I'm going to post all the days. I got the idea to make it from pallets because people give them away for free. So one of the places that had a listing on craigslist for free pallets was a fence company. Yes, I scored enough panels for the back (privacy fence) and enough picket and posts to do the entire front of my yard. Oh man....am I lucky or what?? I had to buy $100 worth of 10' PT posts for the back but the others I got for free at the fence place. Fuck yeah!!