Jordan Watson

Wood, PVC, concrete or those fancy stacked stones. Who would have thought choosing a fence would be so bloody complicated?

We bought our first home a few months back and the first thing we wanted to do was have a bigfence put in to keep the kids safe.

Before we made the move from Auckland to Tauranga we drove all the surrounding streets just staring at people’s fences.

Some people would stare back at us as they were trying to eat their dinner. Dogs would bark and my wife would only point out the really expensive ones. Sigh.

We both agreed on one thing, though. Since we’ve saved for so long and paid a good chunk for the place we were not going to do a rough-sawn plain pine paling fence. These are the fences that plague New Zealand. The ones where the palings start to pop off, the timber is faded and skewing and nothing has been done to help them face the Kiwi elements.

No, we did not want that. It made no sense. This home is your pride and joy, give it the fencing and the respect it deserves.

‘‘Let’s get one of those handmade stone walls,’’ the wife shrieked excitedly.

‘‘Shit no, do you want to take out another mortgage?’’ I replied.

I’m a traditionalist and wanted wood. I know steel and PVC fences are all the rage right now, but we also need custom-made driveway gates and pedestrian gates. Our plan was not simple and that steel and PVC stuff likes simple.

We need two swinging

Turns out the tongue and groove bits must be made from gold because the quote has left me stunned.