As South Africans (and a few other nations around the world) know, good home security is paramount. The most affordable way to do this is metal palisade fencing which can stand anything from ......
A couple of years ago, convinced hubby that it was simply time to pull down the triple layers metalwork and barbed wire and put up something taller, better looking, and of course better serving. We went with 1.8m premade lengths and built up our existing wall to accommodate them, with the addition of two pillars. We installed a motorized gate at the same time, with help of course.
Be the frugal Frannie I am, I was able to acquire a second hand sliding gate for free and we installed the palisades ourselves, with the help of my dad and his welding machine, which I'm afraid hubby kind of sucks at. We paid builders to extend our existing pillars, build two additional ones, and plaster the lot.
It completely changed the street view of our property! I was loving it. Except that I wanted a little more privacy. I'd seen somewhere nearby that one could fill in the gaps between the palisades with wood. I wanted to do the same. So, I jumped onto Facebook marketplace and searched and searched until I found a supplier with fairly priced raw pine planks at 3m lengths.
We bought some and set to work, cutting them at 1.5m lengths and putting them up to dry (as they were wet from rain) this was just before winter and we needed them to dry a little before we could sand and seal them, which we have now done with woodoc dark oak exterior varnish.
We are so pleased with the added touch of nature to the otherwise steel and concrete wall and the added privacy it lends. For security purposes, we can still lookout, but for passers-by, it's not as easy to simply look in.
Oh! But how can I forget the water feature wall! We built that ourselves! I'm very proud of that for the simple reason that it was hubby's very first bricklaying experience. And face brick to boot! The idea was born from an amazing Facebook marketplace acquisition of a stunning water feature I am frequently bragging about how little I paid for! R150!!! The condition was that we collect. Obviously! Until hubby went to collect and found himself at an office full of ladies with a water feature so heavy, it had fallen off the wall and no one was strong enough to lift it back up. So they sold it. Their loss, my gain! Nevertheless, hubby had to move it by himself (this thing is so heavy, it generally takes two people to carry) which he achieved by "walking" it to the jeep and somehow got it in the back. He had muscle aches for a few days, but a very happy wife!
When we did the palisade, we kept an opening where our old apssenger gate used to be because I had found this water feature long before the build had even started.
So when we were ready, we took down the palisade and started by building the wall double at the bottom, in line with the wall housing the palisades, and then went up in a single layer to provide a backdrop for my beautiful cherub water feature!
It was actually pretty funny. The weekend we decided to take this on, it rained. the large parasol had been put out for the summer sun which was beating down on us as we worked, but it ended up helping a little (a very little) with the last 3 rows of bricks that went on in the rain! The dynamic was something along the lines of me mixing cement and cleaning from the inside, hubby stacking from the inside, and my dad leveling and cleaning, from the outside.
I hope what we've done has inspired you; we love it!