Gate and Fence, Before and After

At long last, our big gate and fence project is done. Our previous fence was only being held up by chicken wire, and we had to get out of the car and literally lift the gate up and carry it around to get in and out. The good part was we would always end our directions to people with, "When you see the house with the long white fence, you're here." Here are some before pictures.

From the inside, looking out toward the street.

From the street, looking up toward the house, gate off to the left side.

From across the street. Note the unevenness of the gate. The right side was the one you had to lift-and-carry.

When you reach the house with the long white fence...

And, tah-dah, here are the after pictures. First, though, you must imagine Dara, architect and iris lady, spending days planning things out. She went through many iterations on the layout and landscaping and walls, laying things down to envision it, she drove through distant neighborhoods looking at gates and fences, she bought books. But you have to admit, it was worth it! She designed the gate with its matching pedestrian gate, and we had the iris design custom built up in Sonoma with the rest of the gate.

This is the same as the before view from the inside looking toward the street.

The right hand side, similar to the before picture. You can see the new pedestrian gate and walkway. Note the enameled wire mesh of the new fence matches the gate. These architects! You can't see the bougainvillea well since they're so small, but there are purple ones at a bunch of places along the fence as well.

From across the street, the full effect. It took so long from start to finish that the before pictures are all the green of spring, while the after are the, er, gold of summer.

Looking from outside off toward the left. You can see the iris cut-out clearly, and one of the painstakingly selected lights.

Now it's "When you reach the house with the iris on the gate, you're here!" Nice having the talented architect iris lady to class up the place, not to mention be the general contractor between the gate people, the fence people, and the landscaper.