Back to the Curb

There is an old saying that goes something like this:  "All things come to those who wait".  In 60 years of being financially challenged, I've learned that waiting often proves to be the most frugal way to obtain what you need.

We have decided to remove the old privacy fence and gates from the sides of our house and replace them with an open picket fence and attractive gates.  We will leave the rest of the fence around the back yard because the neighbors have attached their fences to it and most of the neighbors have dogs.

We had checked pricing for fence pickets (we are using the existing posts,  rails and hardware) and discovered that the about 10' of fence and two 40" gates would end up costing at least a couple hundred dollars.  We considered ripping the existing 6" pickets to 4", but decided to wait.

Well, yesterday evening we were on our way to the community garden (we have two plots) when we noticed that a house down the street had a huge pile of white picket fencing at the curb.  They had taken down the fence around their back yard and put it out for the trash.  Most of it was in good shape - just needs a fresh cost of paint.

We put 75 of the pickets in the van and now all I need to do is go to the Household Hazardous Recycling center for free paint.  Now if I can find somebody who is throwing out some perfectly good deck boards...

0 Comments