All Fenced In

I'm not really a fan of fences. I don't like the idea of being all boxed in.

And I don't like the idea of shutting my neighbor's out.

Whenever a herd of deer come in my yard and eat all of my plants, I consider a giant fence surrounding my yard to keep them out. 

But then I think of how ugly a solid fence would be and it reminds me of the Robert Frost Poem, "Mending Wall."  The speaker questions the need for the fence, but the neighbor so famously says

"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors."  Disturbing.

I'm not one who lives inside of neat boundaries.

 I never colored inside the lines.

It's no wonder that even though we got our pool in August, we didn't get our fence installed until January.  For six months, we lived with this orange beauty:

It wasn't because the contractors were over booked.

It was simply because we kept debating what type of fence to get.

Should we get a solid wood fence so we'd have privacy from neighbors and people walking by?  But then we wouldn't be able to see the rest of our own back yard. (Since we moved, we haven't addressed the landscaping, but hope to soon!)

We wouldn't see the herds of deer roaming through our lawn every day.  As much as it drives me crazy that they eat our plants, they are peaceful to look at.

A white picket fence would look charming . . . and would still allow us to see out.

We could have one side built as a privacy fence and the rest open.


Black aluminum fences always look classy and would still allow us to see out.

We're not good at making decisions. 

At all. 


With Anything!


We wait until the last minute.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, getting a fence installed has a heavy price tag. Yet another reason we set our New Year's Resolution to embark on a journey of becoming debt free.

In any case, we decided we didn't want our fence to be our "good neighbor" and so we opted for the black aluminum fence that allows us to see out.

I was in disbelief that the contractors would install it in January in freezing cold temperatures.

Please excuse the fuzzy quality of the picture. I didn't want the contractors to think I was crazy, so I was sneaking pictures from inside my house through the windows.

 

The day after they had it installed, we had a beautiful fence, along with a bunch of snow!

 

 

This Spring we have our work cut out for us as we need to seriously address our landscaping . . . on a very tight budget, of course!

So what about you?

Do you prefer to leave your yard open without fences or do you prefer your yard to be fenced in, and if so with a solid privacy fence, or a more open fence?