Thank you all for all this good and valuable feedback. In north Texas, my dirt is sand and with the winds of tornado weather, it's impossible to not install posts in concrete. My fence sections will be 8-ft H by 8-ft L. So because of wind, sand and weight of fence sections (9 in back, 9 on one side and 6 on the other), my posts MUST be set in concrete, 42"-46" deep. My city REQUIRES that I either use metal posts (which I hate and so do my neighbors) or CEDAR posts. Was told pressure treated are out of the question. I plan to install board-on-boards sections - within the posts, not against them. Plan to use Simpson post brackets to hold the horizontal 2x4's. So re: the posts and wanting to choose a "green" way to preserve them as long as possible, I am looking at wrapping the portion of the posts that will be against the concrete in the ground with some sort of product (roofing cement or waterproofing membranes, or spray-on or brush-on bed liner for trucks, or even using a product called plasti-sleeve for the posts and plasti-skirt for the horizontally placed pressure-treated 2x6's covering the front and back of the bottom of the cedar planks. This will go an inch or two above the ground and concrete to prevent rot at grade-level. So, back to the posts: with this plan, the top and sides will be protected but because of need for moisture to come off the bottom of the posts, what can I choose for that part of the post? This 60-yr old woman from Switzerland thanks you for all your suggestions/opinions.

Thanks all, Your thought are confirming many of my ideas- we have had many visitors whose first thought is to "open up" the whole first floor (ie. open the kitchen, dining and bedroom to each other) but I hesitate because 1. it is an old house and I'd like to keep some of the original plan and 2. sometimes opening up a space makes it actually seem smaller- to me the private bedroom makes the house seem bigger. The vestibule/mudroom leads to a cute side porch, overlooking the driveway but without stairs down to it. It has a closet which is great, but we currently use the space as a lego room :). So, we could do without! I also do picture French doors, but privacy and sound would be a downside. We are in need of a guest room for occasional visitors and really only have three bedrooms on the 2nd floor (the 2nd floor is basically the same floor plan as the first- one needs to walk through two bedrooms to get from the front one to the bath! That's another issue, and I'm not sure we can count on a remodel of the 2nd floor to give us the guest room we'd like). Thanks all for your thoughts- it helps to cement my feelings about this space, knowing others have similar ones!

Actually, after checking it out further my five year old would have to cut through it with something pretty sharp. And I don't think she would have the strength yet. Or the access to whatever would cut it. Regular household scissors wouldn't do the trick. It's pretty thick. Plus, the poles won't come out unless you unhook one of the end pieces from the top, again, she doesn't have enough strength to unhook one of those things. And then pop the poles out one by one. And they don't come out easy. I have a hard time getting them out and I am pretty strong for a girl. I guess an adult could snap one of the poles in half if they really tried. She couldn't. And as for a five year old not needing a barrier, I guess the above poster didn't read all of my first post. She can't swim. At all. If she walked too close and fell in or a dog jumped up on her, knocked her in, another kid pushing her in. That's what happened with her before (again, in my post). One of her friends pushed her in above her head. Even the adults around her didn't pay attention to her flailing around in the water. She had a vest on, but vests don't keep our head out of the water if you don't know to use them. She hadn't been in a pool without someone holding her since she was about a year old. I can't even count on another adult to help her. So yes, a five year old needs a barrier when being around a 10-foot hole in the ground full of water. I am not happy with the way the one panel droops but the pool company who installed it is going to look at it tomorrow when they come back to finish the liner tomorrow.

Wow! You seem like the best sort of neighbor. Thank the Lord there was a chain link fence to contain the uphill mess from rolling into your yard. However, there are limits to what you should have to endure. You say, "It's now a rental, and the stuff behind the shed has built up to include an old mattress, broken furniture, machinery, etc., and the attempts the owners used to make to at least somewhat maintain the slope aren't happening anymore." Your city has rules and a department to deal with the worst of what has been happening—code compliance, code enforcement or something similar. My city relies on citizen complaints to enforce the rules, so call and make the complaint. Allowing junk to sit is asking for rats or other vermin to take up residence. As to your fence, leave the existing chain link. Removing it can, in some states, eventually move the property line to the base of any new fence. Build a concrete block wall and place the privacy fence on top of it. Here is an ARTICLE on building the bottom wall. Here is a VIDEO on how one person added privacy fence to the top of an existing concrete block wall. The important info starts at 3:05. After the wall and fence are finished you can add a rock veneer to cover the concrete block base.