last picket in place | DIY Picket Fence

Happy New Year!  It’s hard to believe that it’s actually 2016, and I’m excited to tell you that the DIY picket fence is well on it‘s way. Yep, the last picket went in over the weekend. Now, mind you, we’re still far from finished.  In order to get the pickets up we tacked them up with finish nails. We will need to go back and secure every one of the OVER 500 pickets with screws.

It’s been cold, and challenging, but it’s getting there!  One side of the yard is 108 feet in length! That was a long haul, and thankfully full of sunshine.  One day it was very cloudy and I thought my fingers and toes were going to fall off.

In fact on that day, I forgot to take a single picture because I was so busy trying to stay warm. Several times I went in and used a hair dryer on my fingers and toes. Since then, I have picked up some hand and toe warmers to use in the future.

This is the long section of fence (108 ft), on a very cold but sunny day. Rodney is using the level to mark the 2×4 rails to make sure the pickets go up straight.

This is a glimpse of the whole setup. You can see a radio (under the tree) for jamming, pickets stacked on saw horses, my sliding compound miter saw set up on Rodney’s sawhorses, with a garbage can for scraps.  The picket jig (template) is clamped to keep all of the sections uniform.

Ignore the extra 20 pounds of clothes I’m wearing that make me look like the pillsbury dough boy, and the 4 chins that show up when a photo is taken from down below. I seriously had on 3 shirts, a hoodie and a insulated flannel shirt, along with 2 pairs of pants and 2 pairs of socks.  In addition, double gloves and a earmuff headband.

Rodney loves leaving little notes on boards.

Each day we had to move the work station further around the yard. This is the last day of putting up the pickets, seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Notice the jaw stand I ordered recently. It’s quite helpful to hold the boards.

This was the very last section to receive pickets. We had to cut the jig down a little to get it to “center” on the middle picket.

This is the very last picket going in to place! It was still early, but we shut it down for the day. Next up? Securing all the pickets with Simpson Strong-Tie fasteners.

I’m hoping we will have nice weather so we can get to that this week.  After that, we’ll start on the gates.

whew! still so much to do . . .

So many neighbors stop to compliment us on the fence every time we’re out there working on it.  Everyone loves it, and keeps asking what I’m going to do with it. paint? stain?  I had intended on painting it white, even bought the paint last fall when it was deeply discounted on sale. Now, I’m sort of “on the fence” (pun intended) about how I want to finish it off.

I will have to wait until all the treated wood has dried, so there’s really no rush right now.

gail

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