Not sure if my main pic went through, so here it is again . . .

This post was edited by midnightstorm on Tue, Feb 26, 13 at 15:44

It sounds like your budget could use a combination fence design - a nice picket style fence around the front entry area of the house and then use a wire type fence for the surrounding perimeter area.
By repeating a common design element such as the post detail in both fences, you can tie the two different fences together into one cohesive design.

check out Walpole Woodworkers . They have some great looking fence details.

A gate is not necessarily a major expense relative to an overall run of fence, so I'm not sure why you're making it sound like a second one costs an exorbitant amount of money. In order to figure out what you want to do, what's you're objective for installing fence in the first place? If your objective covers a large space, you might want to post a photo that shows a much wider view.

I was also wondering what the purpose of the fence is. You can plant a natural fence AKA hedge.

We live on the edge of empty land, and close to the house and pool is completely surrounded and gated at the driveways and kennel areas with wrought iron. Beyond that fence is a chain link fence that covers an acre with two gates that open to wilderness. The purpose I can see (the house came with these things) is to keep out coyotes, but bob cats and cougars can easily scale those fences. I am amazed at the amount of fencing there and I know that whoever put that in spent a lot of $$ on it.

The remaining part of the property (1/2 acre) is not fenced, but I have plans for fences of prickly pears! That is an impenetrable fence, a vegetable, and a fruit all in one! I doubt that any self respecting cougar will mess with the prickly pear! It will keep out the two legged pests for sure!

I think a picket fence around your garden areas would look charming.

Good luck! I hope you get the answers you want!
Suzi

Yardvaark, I'm a 52 year old woman who has never had a fenced yard so I don't have a clue how much fencing or gates cost, so I was assuming that they are expensive like most things these days. The purpose of my fence is just for looks (to add to the cottage 'feel').

I went out today and took a zillion photos that show more detail of my yard. I have posted the set of new pics on Flickr and included that link with this post.

I am also thinking of including a water feature near my porch, so some of the photos are specifically for the person who will be installing that. In some of the photos, you will notice an an overturned orange watering can to mark that spot. Not the most elegant way to mark the area, but it was the best I could do on short notice on this cold, dreary day here in West Virginia :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Photo Links on Flickr

I'm just saying that 4' or 5' of wood gate is not going to be much different in cost than 4' or 5' of wood fence of the same height. But like anything else, you can make it cost more by adding luxury and details.

The pictures are revealing. In most photos we see of the house front, we can expect that, located behind the photographer, is the public street. You surprise us with a grand view of a wooded valley instead. A fence is a separating device and there's little logic to separating your front porch from its outlying view. (Things that go against logic almost always do not look good.) Where it might make sense to put in a picket fence is to separate the automotive entrance area (which is the more public area) from the front yard. You already have the logical entrance to the front yard, the arbor, in place, so it would be easy to connect a run of fence to each side of it. Oddly, with all the pictures you took, you don't have one that shows the approach to the house such as one would see driving up to it. (If you add any more, it's better to pick out the pictures that show well what's needed and post them directly into the thread.) It's likely that a fence would be better running through the garden area than being at the edge of the concrete drive. Exactly how, could not be explained easily without better (wide view) photos of that area.

Congratulations on having steps that are of a width appropriate for the house. One would more typically see a set of steps 3' wide! Instead, yours look to be about 10'. On the other hand, I wish all of the raw wood were painted. It would be so much more charming if it looked finished.

forgot to mention about the water feature location. Since we don't have any idea what the feature would look like, it's not possible to say that it's a good location for it. It would be better to have no water feature at all rather than one that appeared cheap or too small.

I don't think a picket fence would look right in that setting - it would look too 'cutesy' and 'twee' :-) If you need/want a fence I'd go with a three-rail split-cedar fence, which would allow a more open view of the wooded surroundings; look more 'rural' and therefore more suitable to the surroundings than an 'urban/suburban' picket fence; and give you a nice place to grow more clematises :-). If you need the fence to keep critters out, you could attach wire mesh to the back of the fence - that would preserve the open look of the fence while restricting passage through it by critters - it would also provide good support for clematises to climb.... I would paint the woodwork of the porch railings and pillars but leave the arbour and the rail fence natural, which would give a more finished look to the porch while allowing the arbour and fence to blend into the natural surroundings.

I'm also going to be looking for new picket fence.I like the cottage look.But don't want to paint another one again.Used best primer and paint-but still pealed off.

I am a fan of woodyoak's idea, but the poster wants a picket fence. Sometimes these wishes are imbedded with memories.

A setting doesn't dictate the architecture. The dwellers do!

I know you have googled it till you are blue in the face, but have you tried craigs list or builder's surplus places? Sometimes, you can get a real deal on a treasure. I'd use "picket fence gate" as a search term. You never know!

Good luck!

suzi

I'm not sure if I'd do a fence in your front yard. The steps are great. The columns that hold the roof are visually weak in my opinion. I wonder if working on the porch and giving that a stronger presence you'd be helping define your "cottage feel" better. You could always plant a shrubbery border in front, instead of a fence.

I see that Woodyoak suggest painting the rail and pillars, I agree with the more finished look on the porch, but I LOVE the door as it is.

I love the way your garden looks now! That is my dream property and view!

Could you be happy with just putting fence from the house to the walk along the driveway?

Mightnight, did you decide what do to yet?

I am a 50 year old woman with a hillside property (moms place she is 90)

We started by adding picket fencing to the street front section. I used pressure treated 4x4 posts and concrete to set the front, then used 2x3's mounted over lapping on the 4x4 as the rails for my pickets. It was easier for me to work this way (mom would hold an end for me) and then attached gothic pickets (the ready made panels were too heavy and I did not like the cheap nails they used)

Next we did the side yard (our hillside slopes down the side yard hill another half acre?) we had an old retaining wall I set the posts in a bit from (so we had a flower bed on both sides of the fence and it would not feel like a bit drop off)

We did the other side with the neighbors last year with some recycled fencing we were given. And just now, the back with a patio bench built in.

We have wayyyyyy too much white picket fencing but it really looks. And it was built by a couple of old gals!

Oh and gates were scary at first, but I did 2 this week.