Old Fence

So You Want A New Fence?

I know in a recent article I showed you guys how I had bleached my fence.   I have been bleaching my fence for several years now, but have decided that now it is time to actually invest a little money and put up a new fence.  It not only will help raise the value of my home, but my neighbors will stop hating me as well.   Not that I really care what they think anyway, but it is getting to be time for a new fence.

Getting Bids

I would suggest that you shop around before you just go with a fence company that you find.  I ended up choosing Fence Builders Dallas to do the work for my fence.  They have the best prices around, and the customer service seemed to be one of the best out of the other companies that I spoke with on the phone.

When you call for a bid, be sure you ask all the questions necessary to make sure you have a great experience with your builder.   Unfortunately there are some bad apples in the group that have caused a bad name for many legitimate fence builders.  You know people that take your money and run type scenarios, so be sure you are working with a reputable company.

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Loving The HOA

Living in an HOA has both positives, and negative aspects at times.  Everyone that is part of an HOA can probably relate.  Most of the time we love the HOA as it helps to protect the values of our home, and neighborhood.  The downside to the HOA are the fees, the meetings, and when they tell you that you are in violation.

 

The Last HOA Meeting

During our last HOA meeting, it was brought up that our HOA is considering re-striping the parking lot next to our tennis court in our local neighborhood park.   They were asking if anyone in the neighborhood had connections with someone in the business.  I don’t know the first thing about this business but when we met and they presented the budget and talked about who the best company to use was immediately thought of my friend John, because in high school he worked for a company that did parking lot striping.  I have not talked to John in a while, so I looked him up on facebook real quick, and found him right away.  I sent him a quick friend request, and in a matter of minutes he was now my “new found” friend again.

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the-house

Lessons Learned Buying My First Home

the-houseLets be real, buying a new home costs a lot of money.  Parting with that large sum of money is a huge commitment, and you should protect that investment by getting your home inspected prior to making an offer on the home.  If you happen to be building your home I would suggest getting a multi-phased inspection during the building process. Most houses that are up for sale are dressed up to portray a pristine condition highlighting their best features and concealing potential flaws.  A professional home inspector can uncover problems you may have overlooked or simply not seen. I as lucky when buying my home and the inspection went great, but I had a buddy that was selling his home and found huge issues with his foundation and was kind of stuck getting that fixed before he could even sell his home.

Everything Might Not be Okay

Most people who are buying newer properties which were recently constructed might not see the point of getting it inspected (however most states require it …I think…not sure). Remember the age of the home should not be a reason to waiver prior inspection. You might uncover serious troubles which might cost you a lot in the long run trying to remedy. The problems might be

  • poor wiring
  • plumbing
  • heating and cooling systems
  • foundations
  • roof damage
  • termites or other bug/rodent issues
  • insulation issues
  • walls
  • ceilings
  • there are just so many things that could be wrong..

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fence bleaching

Fence Transformation

So I learned this trick several years by accident, but wanted to share it with you just in case you may want to give it a try.    I do have to put out a disclaimer though because I have no idea if this is good for your fence or not.   One day I noticed I had this moss looking stuff growing on my fence.  I wasn’t sure what to do about it, but I figured if I put some bleach on it, that it would kill the moss, which I figured was basically a fungus growing on the fence that would soon destroy the fence before its time.

sprayerI bought a bottle of bleach and a pump pressure sprayer (like this one here).   I then started spraying the moss looking stuff, and to my amazement, right before my eyes the moss disappeared, the fence changed color, and transformed before my eyes.  The fence started to look brand new.  I couldn’t believe it.   The thing is, I couldn’t simply start after killing off the moss, because now the fence looked brand new in that one spot.  So I went out and bought more bleach and had a great time watching the fence change from old ugly fence into old newer looking fence.

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