New fence

With the neighbours from hell gone and we now falling back in love with our home and garden we decided that now is the right time to replace the rear perimeter fence in its entirety as it is rotting, is a bit of a mish mash and looks a mess and I'm sick of looking at it.  To aid recovery of my mental health it needs to go and be replaced with nice new stuff that looks great and I can be proud of and happy to look at.  We have plans to renovate other parts of the garden and a nice new sturdy fence is integral to that work also.

We are responsible for the cost of the fence on the right hand side as you look out from the back door and also across the bottom.  The owner of the house next door is responsible for the cost of the fence on the left hand side of our property (the right hand side from his back door).  We approached him about it, and after several messages back and forth, some a little heated, he finally agreed that it needed replacing.   

We understand the stress he went through with her not paying rent for the last 12 months of her time here but we put up with her for 9 years. 9 years of sheer hell, parcels going missing, things being thrown over into the garden breaking our stuff, her kids and their friends climbing into our garden breaking and stealing stuff in the early years, cars damaged, harassment, being followed around shops, all night parties, loud music, loud voices and shouting all day every day, lies being spread about us, the constant bad smell of cannabis being smoked, rubbish and broken furniture littering the local area (which coincidentally all stopped and totally disappeared after she left making the area much nicer).  I think after that, and that is just a small amount of what we put up with from his tenant, that to ask him to replace the fence that she destroyed is not an unreasonable request.  We are also getting rid of the trellis from around the top, which added height and helped stop kids climbing over and instead we are adding a kickboard to the bottom so that the total height remains the same, just more solid.  Security strips will added to the top edges once its finished to help prevent anyone from climbing over.

We had already booked for the fence to be replaced before he gave us the go ahead for his side.  May Day weekend starting on the 3rd May, as we knew that the neighbours the other side would be away from the crack of dawn on Friday morning and less likely to be any "issues". We had had a few issues with the neighbours boyfriend on the other side ever since he moved in a few years ago.  We had replaced the fence on that side when we moved in 12 years ago because it was falling over and we had a young child and I was pregnant with our next.  At the time we couldn't afford much so it was only cheap fencing but it was better than what was there and it was upright and straight, until he moved in and messed with it.  Everything in "his" garden, its actually her house, has to be pushed right up tight to the fence, screwed to the fence with the longest screws ever, meaning that the screw ends are protruding by a mile and we have to cut them off for ours and our kids safety but by doing this he has pushed the fence over and out of alignment.  Time to get it straightened and re-aligned and claim some of our garden back whilst he isn't here to argue and throw a tantrum.

Whoops! I've written war and peace but that was the situation we were in. So, first up, some before photos. We had already removed trellis for plants that was attached to the fence and installed two new garden arches for the plants to grow up as this is better for the fence, better for us and better for the plants.  We also removed both sheds from the bottom of the garden that had seen better days and put everything into storage so that the guys could build us a nice big flat concrete base once the new fence was in.

This view is of the side shared with the landlord of the property that had neighbour from hell. No kick boards on either side which meant weeds and grass from neighbours would creep under the fence into ours, not for much longer though!

This view is of the fence with neighbours in their 60's looking towards our house.  See how the trellis is pushed over by the door, which causes issues with us opening the door fully.

This is view of side with neighbours in their 60's at the bottom of the garden.  See how straight the fence isn't!  This is where its really been pushed over and distorted.  Wait for the aerial photo further down!

This photo shows how he pushed his shed so far into the fence that it pushed it over and originally the drain pipe went straight down but he had put two bends in it and then faced the end of the pipe towards our property, which explains why our path is always wet, slimy and icy in the winter.  On the other side of that pipe is a bolt which went through the centre of the original fence post when the houses were built in the late 1960's and where the fence post that we put in 12 years ago was aligned against and screwed to the wall so at some point he has moved the fence post and wedged the pipe between the fence post and the bolt, I kept saying I thought it had been moved, crafty git!  Needless to say our team of guys managed to move his shed over a bit and that pipe was turned so that the water now runs off under his shed and to ensure it couldn't be turned back concrete/cement was placed over and around it to keep it in place and divert all water that comes from his roofs away from our property.

 A few photos of the new fence before a few comparison photos side by side of before and after.

The photo on the left is what it looks like by the back door now, not as far over as it should be but not hanging over so we can't open our back door properly.  Head on view looking at fence with neighbours in their 60's.

View taken from my daughters bedroom, ignore the moss on the utility roof that I've pushed into piles with the broom from the open windows toward the edge that hubby hasn't removed yet. Bloody Magpies, they pick it off the main roof and toss it down with a thud! Second photo shows the new concrete shed base.

Now for the before and after.

What a difference, isn't that much better!  We still have to decide what we are doing about the little divider fence but we will do that ourselves when we know what we want to do.

Its straight again, and we've regained a few inches of garden back, not what we had originally but its better than it was.  The path is where its always been and years ago that bit of garden was wide enough to plant Hebe shrubs in.  The before photos shows its hardly wide enough to put a few daffodils in thanks to the antics of him next door.

Aerial view of before and after.  The fence should have been moved over quite a bit more to the right but because of his structures and paving next door they couldn't move it as much as we and they would have liked, not without having to go through a lengthy court process to force him to dig some of it up and its just not worth that much hassle.  It has been moved over by a few inches, as much as they could, and the main thing is that it is now strong, well concreted in and he can't mess about with moving it anymore.

All we have to do now is paint the fence and get the new shed built.