After last weekend's gate-a-palooza, I thought it might be nice to finish off the fence project. On Friday morning I called Labor Ready and booked Chris and one other guy for the day. Chris was here before and did great work.

The team — Chris and Anthony — showed up a bit past 9AM and by 11am, the fence was down and loaded into the truck for a dump-run ($60 at Contra-Costa-Waste) — their progress was amazing. By lunchtime (1pm), all of the post-holes were dug. by 3pm, the posts were set, concrete was hardening and the team was on their way to enjoy their respective Saturday nights…

Sunday morning, I was ready to make a lumber run… I first stopped at Dolan's in Concord which is where I prefer to buy my lumber. Knowing their price was 20% higher than Home Depot, I asked: "If i buy a few hundred boards, can I get a bit of a price break?" While I wasn't expecting them to match Home Depot's price, 10% off would have kept me there.

The response: "Nope, that's what they sell for"… One of the reasons I like Dolan's is that they load your materials… so I weighed the idea of spending several hundred dollars for this service. In the end, frugality won out and I headed to Big-Orange where I not only saved money, but got better lumber (really) and even got someone to help load the cart and load the truck. When I got home, I sent Dolan's a quick note entitled: "Why I didn't spend $1000 at your shop today". While I'll surely be back there eventually, I might be tempted to stop at Home Depot first now.

By Sunday afternoon, the fence was finished…

Anyhow, below are some pictures of the progress and end result.

So… we're getting some drywall cracking over the doors… any ideas?

Thanks to the help of neighbors and friends, Bret and Kyle, we have a new fence.

The right side of the house now has a double gate which allows for greater access and the left side will have a single gate — which is also the side the garden will be on which will make hauling stuff in a bit easier. Gate hardware comes from Adjust-a-gate, available at Lowes.

The lack of visible hardware was sort of a happy-accident. Plus, we also replaced part of the neighbor's fence which made the gate post more sturdy and extended the visual line of the fence a bit further, which is nice…

We had a few mulberry trees planted far too close to the house. The operative word being "had" thanks to Lloyd's Tree Service. They also gave the Eucalyptus a much-needed haircut — unfortunately, it had been topped in the past, so the shape will be a bit odd for a while.

We've had a few troubles with the pipes in the slab recently. A few months ago, Anderson came out to repair a radiant heat leak with great success… Most recently, a cold-water potable leak was causing super-high water bills…

We found the source of the leak with the help of American Leak Detection. Afterward, we called All-Pipe Restoration (Ace DuraFlow) to fix the leak using their epoxy-coating system.

This process saves jack-hammering up the floor — which in our case would have been tough as the lines were quite thick in that area — heat, water, etc… all converging in one spot. The process also protects the entire branch, not just the one spot that was leaking, so it might be good down the road.

Essentially, they break open the lines, blast them clean, flood them with epoxy and let that harden inside the pipe, forming a PVC-like lining inside the pipe. After treatment, you can't solder the pipe anymore and if you do the whole house, you have to take off the supply valves, but in our case, we just fixed one main supply line from one manifold to the next — a pretty easy run. The flow is also as good (or better — since the line is now clean and smooth).

So far, so good… so, if you've a problem, give Sergey a call (pictured below with… Sergey (#2)).

Some friends wanted to see how I spent the weekend (after a FaceBook post relating to furniture building), so here goes… Eventually, we'll need a very large (8 foot wide with 5-bays) hanging media cabinet — which, because of the size and configuration, will be a custom-made piece. I wanted to start with a prototype… and we needed a credenza/shelf/cabinet in the dining room.

Mid Century Modern-esque pieces are hard to find on the new-furniture market and craigslist is always spotty… unless you're Bret who has some weird cheap, vintage furniture karma. The pieces are either crazy expensive or a bit too ersatz. We did find a nice piece at West Elm which would have been the "if we bought it" piece, but for a lot less, we have a custom-made one and one that's a bit wider, which is good for the room — and one that hangs which is good for Roomba (our other pet).

This piece is made from oak plywood and edgebanded, but the final media cabinet will likely be walnut or mahogany to better match the house.

Since it will be hanging, it had to be over-built from a structural standpoint and the whole thing is assembled with joining-biscuits and pocket screws (on the back where they won't show). Simple nails and glue would not have held well. It will hang from the rail in the back/top and screwed straight to studs once we place it. We could've hung it on a removable rail/cleat but this was more straightforward and visually simpler. The back is open to show the wall color and the interior shelves are fixed and set back a bit to add depth to the piece. It will eventually (later today?) be stained black (like my favorite Knoll credenza).

So… on Sunday at 10am, we hadraw materials and by 10pm, it was clamped-up in the garage (with lots of breaks in between).

So, here you go, Bret: pictures… more after it's stained, finished and hung…