I need a fence to be a good neighbour

Freelance writer Carola Vyhnak is leaving her four-acre country home, north of Cobourg, Ont., for a smaller place in a nearby town. In the sixth instalment of her downsizing journey, she gets an inside-and-out inspection of the house she just bought.

Let’s hope Robert Frost knew whereof he wrote when he penned “good fences make good neighbours”! The first thing I’m doing at my new house is installing a six-foot fence around the backyard. I have to.

In his 1914 poem “Mending Wall,” Frost mused that he’d want to know “what I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence,” before erecting a fence.

In my case, Rufus the dog and Yoshi the cat, who don’t know what confinement means, will have their freedom curtailed. And I want privacy in an unfamiliar urban setting.

Kind of ironic to be fencing us in when wide open spaces were the big draw at the rural property I recently sold. But I’ll start off on the right foot — or 200 feet, more accurately — by keeping the folks on the other side posted.

Inside the brick bungalow that I’ll move into in July, there’s a warmth and ambience riding the fresh breeze from open windows. And during this opportunity to see exactly how everything measures up, the space is just as tidy and lovingly tended as I remember.

“I wanted the house to look the way it was when you first came through,” the thoughtful homeowner explains in an email.

On a practical level, there are ample closets and storage spaces, and a microwave cabinet conveniently positioned at chest height. The soft neutral shades of the walls work with everything, making the home truly move-in ready.

But about that fence … finding an installer to replace the existing rickety boards and chain-link is tricky amid the stampede of like-minded backyarders.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in 38 years,” says fencing expert Bill Breakey. He explains that the fourby-four posts of the old type of green-tinted pressure-treated lumber had a life expectancy of 15 to 25 years, and now those fences are rotting and falling over.

The storm that blew through a couple of months ago was the last straw for many structures, according to Breakey, former owner of Cooper Fencing in the Quinte area, 30 minutes east of Cobourg.

“Strong winds created all kinds of aggravation for people with old fencing,” he says.

Fence installation costs vary, depending on factors, such as height, terrain, design and materials. One thing I learned: every job is different. Based on my calls to fencing companies, $50 to $70 per linear foot seems to be the going rate for a wood fence.

Breakey recommends using fiveby-five posts which don’t rot or break off at ground level. Greenhued arsenic-treated lumber was replaced years ago by more planetfriendly, durable stuff that’s often coloured brown in the treatment process.

Investing in a good fence adds value to a home, according to Dave Hurd, Cooper Fencing’s owner.

“We have a lot of clients from the city and the first thing they want is privacy, security and a safe place to contain their kids and dog,” he says.

Sounds familiar.