Building a fence, no experience necessary or a lesson in marriage counseling
This week Andrea is taking vacation at home. My grandfather calls this a honeydo week. More accurately its been a test of the strength of our marriage as we put up a fence on the side of our house. No contractors, just two people who don’t know anything about fences making it up as they go along. Add to the mix the fact that I have a back injury that limits my participation.
Andrea called in her second string husband, my best friend Bill, to come in and help dig the post holes at the start of the project. The next day work was put on hold because of our son’s third birthday. Monday everything else in the world conspired to make this a wholly unproductive day. By Tuesday, the holes were dug and the first of the posts were set. Wednesday the other half of them were finally in the ground and we waited twenty-four hours for them to set. Today, after we learned how to use an electric saw (turns out we didn’t know as much as we both thought we did) and messed up a couple of our 2X4’s we got the frame in place. The rest came together quickly.
Without giving you the blow by blow account of this less than spectacular build, we each had different ideas of how the fence should be built. Mind you, neither of us know anything about fences. Well, aside from the obvious.
Do you mix the concrete with water by hand? Or do you dump the bag in the hole and bring over the water hose? She wanted to do it the hard way and mix it by hand. I’m willing to concede that the hard way in this instance is probably also the right way. Although I have heard of people doing it both ways successfully.
How about measuring out the distance between the posts so that they are exactly eight feet? Or end up cutting each of the eight foot 2X4’s to fit? Can you guess which way we end up doing it?
In the end, the fence is up and it looks good. It helps that there are a row of rather large trees blocking most of the fence. From the street you can’t tell it was built by drunken dyslectic sailors. We have a bigger backyard and it’ll keep Tristan in, that’s all that matters. The various disagreements will be forgotten as they give way to all new arguments.
Sounds like we fight all the time, and we really don’t. The main problem is that we are both chronically right. After spending this week with Andrea building this fence, I’d say more married couples should give it a try. It’ll definitely bring any of the issues in your relationship to light, and may just give you a new insight into how you mate thinks and behaves. If you’re not confident about your relationship, then DON”T EVER BUILD A FENCE, you might as well divvy up the CD’s and pack your bags now.
