Garden project progress- Home ReSource fencing

Although it is getting late in the gardening year, I am making some progress now on some garden projects- primarily fencing related.

This fencing project started about 11 years ago.  When we first bought our house, the house was surrounded by a dilapidated 4' staggered board fence that provided little privacy.  Over the course of a couple of summers, we replaced 2 of the 3 side of the fence as time and money allowed.
The third side (the east), I frankly never thought I would ever complete, though periodically over the years i threatened to finish it.

Then it happened, while shopping at Home ReSource one day someone dropped off about 130 lineal feet of 6' privacy fence panels- more than enough to complete our last side.

I was there on my bike and I didn't want to deal with buying, loading, unloading and storing all those fence panels so I just tried to ignore that it was there.  Later that day I returned to get it, because I couldn't stop thinking about how I should get it.  When I got back, about half had been sold.

I bought the rest and for the last few months I have been moving those panels around- each place I put them turns out to be a place where I need something else.

Over the last two weeks, panel by panel I have been replacing the old fence with the new.  I actually just set out to pull out the old fence posts and dig new holes before the ground froze- bargaining.

One thing lead to another, and I now have two new gates, and 90% of the east fence complete (I ran out of materials!).

As for the old fence, Marilyn neatly de-nailed, sorted and stacked all the old cedar fence pickets and cedar 2x4 rails.

I'll eventually reuse all these boards into trellises, garden furniture and other things.

Replacing the east side fence was just the beginning.  Having all these fencing materials on hand helped me address some other problems that have developed over the years.

Over the years, our use of the backyard and our needs have changed.  We no longer need a 10' double door to the garage (my shop), and it is saggy and hard to use.  Now that we don't even have an overhead door in the garage, we don't need a double gate int he fence to access it.

So, I replaced that double gate with a single 40" wide gate that opens both into the alley and bakyard.  It is much easier to use, takes up less "floor" space,

And, the feature I like most is that I installed a deadbolt lock (from Home ReSource) as a latch that I can open from the alley (I had it keyed to our house key).

All the hardware was from Home ReSource, too.

Plus, this gate incorporates not only parts of our old fence, but our old hammock stand, too, like the curved top and bottom rails.

Though we don't need a big gate to the garage, we do need a big gate to get the camper in the back yard.  You can follow the renovation of our camper on my wife's blog http://toastercamper.blogspot.com/.

I considered a lot of different options for opening and closing this 11' gate from two doors on hinges to an 11' rolling or sliding gate.  I eventually settled on the low tech (and cheap) option of just making a removable panel on hangers I got at Home ReSource.

So, as our use changed, so did the fence, and gates.
It is very gratifying to reuse everything you can.  The western red cedar lasts a long time and has a lot of life left in it (both the new fencing and the old), but I reused everything I could from the fence panels and supplies I purchased, including 2x4's, pickets, and screws.    The only thing I bought new for this project is pressure treated 4x4's and concrete.
My old gate hardware is going to a friend for his gate project, and anything I don't plan on using is going back to Home ReSource, where it can be used again.