2 years ago…We tackled our first major project.
Let that fester for a minute,
2 years ago…
Here’s what our backyard looked like the first time we saw it …..
Huge backyard for our neighborhood, But a chain link fence?..
Honestly?
Not very sexxxy.
Not at all. And completely covered in honeysuckle, trumpet vine, and morning glory. It just looked unkempt.
We needed an actual wood fence. A horizontal fence to be honest.
We met with 7 different contractors/fence builders……and none of them would build us a horizontal fence ( for a reasonable price, anyway). But the 8th one we talked to was willing to take on our challenge. All right for you Jack!
He tore out the chain link….and left the fig tree. Yeah!
And started building our horizontal cedar fence..
We Love it!!! Love it so much. So, Very, Very, Much.
We constructed our fence 2 years ago…
Let that fester for one more minute,
2 years ago… (slowly shakes head and sighs) We built it……but never stained it.
In 2 years time the beautiful cedar had faded to this soft grey…
Well all that changed this week……We finally stained it. Now it’s russet. Beautiful color this russet, warm brown..slight redish tint. Semi-transparent stain/sealer with 25% colorant added…so it’s not too dark/not too light. Looks great.
( by “We”, of course I mean our dear friend Chuck who did the actual work) Remember Chuck? He installed the new electrical panel a few months ago. Well, he came back.
Chuck started staining by hand, but just for about 2 feet of the whole fence……then he and Jamie rented a sprayer. Aaahhh, slightly faster process.
In 2 days time, you can tell this by Chuck’s wardrobe change, he had that baby looking like a million dollars.
Speaking of a million dollars; our dry-ass fence soaked up almost 5 5-gallon drums of stain(that’s 25 gallons if you’re counting) Jeeshh
Every shot I took straight on in the backyard had a blurry Doberman in it …so there ya go.
How was that Steven? More of what you wanted to see?….Shutters are next BTW.
THE CAVENDER DIARY 
It looks great!!! Now you are inspiring me to have ours done!!! It will surely soak up 25 gallons, too, I fear! Enjoy your holiday, guys!!!
It’s a “World of Difference”, Vickie…we should have done it 2 years ago….
Jack did an ah-ma-zing job on your fence…and that Chuck is a good guy to know! The fence looked sweet before the stain, but, man…what a difference. I’m diggin’ it!
Tina
Chuck is indeed a “good guy to know”…..and he puts up with my anal-retentiveness….hard to find friends like that …..hehe
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Man o man, that looks sharp! Another well planned project.
My request to see fence pictures was a pretty expensive request. I now have to talk my neighbor into staining our one year old, unstained common fence. Looking forward to your shutters so we can copy cat. -Steven
LOLOL, we didn’t stain them just for you ya know. Can’t beflieve that we waited 2 years …such a difference
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I love your fence! My husand and I are currently building a horizontal fence and I was looking around for ideas when I found your blog. I’m very impressed! Love it!
Thanks Samantha,
It was a struggle, no one wanted to build it for us, And I knew it was what I wanted…….check out how we remade the gates too, they look tons Better now.
Local here. Any chance of sharing Jack’s info for the fence build?
Wish I could, Jack’s brother was my general contractor, but he passed away a year ago. I think Jack moved back to Poland shortly after that. Sorry
The fence looks great! How wide are your slats?
Hi Nelmarie, they are just the standard board width, maybe 5 inches. Glad you like it…
We are in the process of building a horizontal fence and love the way yours looks! Can you tell me what brand of stain you used? Behr, Olympic, Valspar??
Thanks so much!
So sorry Lea, I’m sure you’ve finished by now. We used Behr, Semi-transparent “Russet”, with 25% colorant added.
I absolutely love your fence I am trying to convince my fiancé to let us do this, is there anyway you could tell me how your gate was constructed or show me a pic of it?
hi. Great fence!
what type of cedar did you use!?
Love the stain color. Would you share? Getting ready to do mine and having a hard time picking.
Sorry this has taken so long….it’s “Bear Rug” in Behr stain from Home Depot.
Beautiful!! What color/brand stain did you use? Love it
This was so long ago….. that I’m restaining as we speak. Behr, Home Depot, Russet semi-transparent with 25% colorant added. It was too light. A few years later and I’m restaining with 100% of the colorant.
I would love to know how this fence and stain held up and how often it needs to be stained. It is the perfect design for my new fence that I am getting ready to build. My home was finished in 1960 and I often battle the style of the mod home and how to modernize it. Great looking fence!!
Thanks Christi, it held up “ok”. After 10 years, I restained the whole thing and replaced the entire cap boards this past summer. I should get another 5-6 years until I need to work on it again.
Hi James, when you restained the fence recently, did you use now 100% of the colorant as you mentioned in another comment? If so, do you prefer the color of the original 25% or 100%?
Thanks !
Honestly there are parts stained with 25% and 100%. I prefer the 25% because it shows the wood grain nicely….. but the 100% covered the aged wood better. After the pool install, the fence was a wreck from all the construction and 100% colorant hid all the flaws.
Hi, After initially leaving your fence for two years, did it have to be power washed before staining? We are installing a red cedar fence, and cant decide if we want to add clear seal, stain, or paint. I read that we would need to strip it back to “raw” by power washing if we left it too long.
We didn’t go any power washing, but I can see where that would help. I did sand a few areas with a power sander and it made a huge improvement. But it’s pretty tedious…. I mean, it’s a big fence.