July 17, 2006
Getting Started with Curb Appeal
I have neglected the outside of the house in my drive to finish all the interior demo work and get the place ready for fresh drywall/plaster, but the delivery of the dumpster this weekend forced me to spend some time cleaning up the front yard area. Since the dumpster will be picked up tomorrow, I had to spend much of today outside in the insane heat pulling the storm windows off the porch, taking down the aluminum awning, ripping out the iron railing and taking down the chainlink fence. I didn’t have any trouble removing the chainlink part of the chainlink fence, but the fenceposts themselves were (and continue to be) a much different story. They took the time and effort to pour concrete around the posts when they were installed, which to me is like using super glue to make macaroni art. It’s going to take more work than I anticipated to dig them out, so they may not make it in the dumpster tomorrow — especially if it’s still a million degrees outside.
Here is a picture of the current state of the front of the house, along with a “before” picture for contrast.
I would love to be there swinging with you good buddy. Looks like fun. I can NOT believe you took out the chain link though.
One of the contractors who came by to give me an estimate could not believe I took out the fence either. He was even more incredulous when he noticed that I had the thrown a 30 foot roll of chain link into the dumpster. He left with a back seat full of glorious chain link materials, free of charge. Nobody else on my street has such a fence, but it is apparently a hot commodity for some. Guess I should have tried to sell it on craigslist.
Looks much better! You couldn’t just cut the fenceposts and leave the concrete buried, could you?
Cutting the fenceposts at the base and leaving the concrete is definitely an option, but I’ve been trying to avoid it in the front yard area since they seem to come out fairly easily with a little digging around the base (I didn’t have a proper shovel when I first wrote this post). I may be forced to cut at the base when it comes to the posts that are along the driveway. The asphalt and concrete have comingled and I can’t get the posts to budge.