Wow!!! We've finished the biggest home improvement project of our lives, to date. Which actually isn't saying much because it is practically the only home improvements we've ever done at all, in our lives. But, better late than never!
What did we do, you ask? Well, we didn't add a second bathroom, or fix up our shabby, tiny kitchen, or our even shabbier and tinier existing bathroom, no, no. Instead - WE GOT A NEW FENCE!
Now you wouldn't think a fence is sexy, but that would be where you're wrong, because check out this hunky fella!!! 8 feet tall and golden like honey. It has completely transformed our side yard into a totally private avenue. And privacy is at a premium in Portland with all the infill coming in, especially on our street. In fact, any minute the house behind us will be demolished and FOUR condos put in. I'm scared! It's going to get even noisier around here, and way less private. And I am a sensitive person. I am already overwhelmed by the noise and vibration of this street, and the five bars right down the street. We (ie: ME) needed somewhere to escape, so I took a good look at our lot and racked my brain. What would be the easiest, cheapest way to get more usable, private space?
Now, I am a home renovation tv show addict. I binge watched all the Fixer Uppers, all the Genevieve shows, all the Queer Eyes, and way back when - all the Changing Room and Ground Force episodes. And I am not an idle watcher. I take notes. I mentally file away all my favorite elements. I google, I print, I put on the fridge. I hold on to ripped out magazine pages for years. So I can think outside the box once in a while. I have learned from the masters. And this idea really payed off! It's like we have a whole new yard! A whole new house even, with the porch involved. It feels like about four new outside "rooms" to enjoy, and three of them are completely private. I'm just so thrilled!!!
Portland is getting cray cray. It was already crowded - it IS and was a big city, after all - before it became the rage of the nation to move here. And now it's becoming another city entirely - a city that never sleeps. I know, I'm a menopausal woman with insomnia, and neither I nor Portland are sleeping. Rush hour is 24-7, my favorite (not) being the 2:15 - 3:00 am rush hour. Full of lively music, slamming doors, and loud, slurred talking. Sometimes even yelling! Sometimes even screaming! (Should they really be driving?) We marvel sometimes at the circus going on right outside our door at night, and I wish we'd been able to do this years ago! And it's changed everything!
The people moving here today - paying over half a million bucks for a small condo with no yard - can only dream of having outdoor space at all, let alone private space. We do have it pretty hard in some ways - living on this insane street, and in such a small house, but we have it really good in others - the neighborhood (beyond the bars) is ideal, we're on a corner, we're up on a hill, and half the yard was fenced already. The problem was - the other half was completely unusable, and often littered with trash and bottles after a particularly wild Saturday night. I was determined to reclaim it. And that is where the sexy new fence comes in.
It's like magic. Not only did we practically invent out of thin air a totally private passageway on the side of our house, but we fenced the front as well which has cleaned up our entire front property, buffered and protected the house, sent a message the street that we CARE, and created new hang out areas for us!!! Yay!
I used to feel far too exposed to sit out there. It felt like I was on stage every time I walked out the front door. It's not just my neighbors out there it's all of Portland. Everyone who wants to get north or south between 60th and 39th takes 50th, plus two blocks away is one of the most popular tourist streets in town. Lots of shopping, lots of eating, lots of coffee, lots of bars. So my front porch kind of is a stage for the entire city of Portland, I always ended up fleeing back inside, overstimulated and panicking because of all the curious eyes, the bright headlights, or some horrifically loud fleet of motorcycles roaring by.
The fence won't keep out the roar of the motorcycles, but it really, truly changes the energy in the yard. Finally, after 11 years I feel protected. I am buffered. And a lot of what's happening on the street is hidden, too. That actually really helps - not seeing the source of an annoying noise. It makes it easier to ignore.
So grab a lawn chair! Put on your puffer coat and crack a beer! Let's drink to the new, sexy fence, our new yard to party in, and the inevitable (right?) return of the sun!!!
HAPPY WEDNESDAY!
xoxoxo Diane
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